Circumstantial Evidence
by donteatblue
Summary: A/U: In an alternate universe, we meet attorneys Calliope Torres and Arizona Robbins. ... Word.
1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note**: Thank you as always goes to my very lovely and awesome beta and friend-LibraryNerd, my very dear friend and writing buddy StopBreathe, and my fabulous personal artist (and awesome artist in general) 2damnpretty2die. You all are such inspirations to me, thank you.

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><p><em><strong><strong>Circumstantial Evidence- Chapter One reuploaded with changes 425/2013****_

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><p><em><strong>In an alternate universe, we meet attorneys Calliope Torres and Arizona Robbins. ... Word.<strong>_

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><p>"I started this firm from nothing, built it from the ground up," Arizona yelled at the opposing counsel, getting more irate as the other woman merely scoffed at her. "You weren't anything when you came to me for a job. You'll ruin everything if you take MY firm."<p>

"You had nothing but a few DUIs and some juvenile offenders before I came with MY connections and MY money. I brought in the big name clients with MY connections and reputation; you aren't keeping MY clients to continue padding your all-important bank account." She had had enough of being told she was nothing without Arizona. If anything, over the last few months alone, she had proven everyone wrong. She didn't need Arizona or … or … or anyone to define who she was anymore. She was Callie Torres soon to be Callie Torres again and though her dad might have given her a push with his connections and Arizona did give her a chance bringing her into the firm with such little experience, Callie had finally found her own two feet and was standing firmly upon them.

"You mean your daddy's money and connections. Have you ever had to work for anything in your whole adult life, Calliope, or are you going to continue sucking all the people around you as dry as you have me?" Bringing Callie's family into this was a low blow, even for Arizona, but neither had ever played fair in the courtroom. That's what made them damn good lawyers; their clients' best interests came first before anyone else and they did everything in their power to win regardless of whom they hurt in the process. They had recently learned the same stood for when the hurting was each other.

Gritting her teeth before she could explode and end up becoming too emotional, which would only satisfy the other woman and in turn hurt her own case, Callie looked straight at the judge. "Split the damn firm for all I care, but I'm keeping the house. I paid for it with MY money before we were married. I'm entitled to keep any and all things that aren't marital property." Callie had drained a good portion of her trust fund to buy Arizona's dream house as a wedding surprise for her fiancée. That was before her father caught wind of her lesbian fiancée and completely cut her off until she turned from her life of sin, which was still the case to this day. Callie knew that her fiancée had been enamored of the old Victorian from the moment she laid eyes on it. She also knew that Arizona would never dare splurge on it and put down fifty percent of the cost up front before surprising her then fiancée with it. It was so they that had something that was theirs to start the future together.

"You … you gave that to me. That is OURS. I've been paying an equal amount of the mortgage for our entire marriage," Arizona growled, her voice dripping with pure contempt. Callie had even moved out, leaving Arizona alone there since their separation. She never wanted it like Arizona did; she just wanted her wife to be happy. But now Callie just wanted Arizona to hurt and taking away their house on top of their future was going to do so much more damage than the loss of the firm ever would.

Callie was starting to panic as nausea made its way past half a bottle of Pepto Bismol and two dozen Tums. She knew she had a big fight in front of her in order to maintain some of her dignity since Arizona and her family had done their best to destroy what little she did have, but she didn't expect to hear such disdain for her lacing her wife's voice when her wife, er, … ex-wife spoke to her. She still wasn't sure exactly how they had gotten here, but they were here now and it felt too late to figure out why.

The courtroom was packed with colleagues, both from within the courthouse and those they'd worked with and against over the years. Word had spread of the circus they'd both started and people flocked to watch things unfold. It surprised nobody in the courtroom that the two lawyers were before a judge asking for a divorce; most had been betting against the women from the words I Do. It also surprised nobody how messy it had already become. They were two of the best, most high-powered attorneys in the state of Washington, some would argue the West Coast, but with that also came that they had the money to put where their mouths were. The Law Offices of Robbins and Torres had become a war zone and the courtroom had become their battleground. They both wanted the firm, they both wanted the house, but really they both just wanted the other to suffer.

"ENOUGH!" The Honorable Chief Judge Richard Webber forcefully slammed his gavel onto the large antique desk before him in order to silence the two feuding women. Both women had at one point had a turn at being his law clerk and they knew better than to turn his courtroom into a spectacle; they knew how to behave. Aside from that, they were like family to him; he had presided happily and proudly over their marriage and now, with little choice it seemed, he was presiding over their divorce, too.

"Callie. Arizona. One more word out of either of you and you'll both be spending the night in a cell," he bellowed from his post behind his desk as he glared at the two impossible women.

The two women exchanged looks before Arizona smirked. The smile on her face was daring Richard to follow through on his threat; it wouldn't be the first time that she was held in contempt of court and it fazed her none. Callie, on the other hand, would not be so happy; she hated being locked up with a passion.

"Word." Arizona almost laughed as she watched the color drain out of her wife's face.

"Bailiff Karev, Bailiff Yang, please escort these women to lock-up." Richard was far from surprised at Arizona's antics; he'd been silently hoping she'd speak up. Arizona's hardheaded nature worked right into his plan. He was just sorry Callie had to suffer too in order for it to all fall into place. Callie was the more emotional of the two and a night or two in jail was going to get to her. Unfortunately for her, this was the only way for everything to work out, in the judge's opinion.

"What? No! Please. You can't be serious. Please!" Callie started panicking as the bailiffs approached.

"Oh, how the mighty have fallen." Cristina, Bailiff Yang, smirked as she cuffed Callie's hands behind her back. Cristina didn't have any real animosity toward Callie; of the two lawyers, she actually liked Callie, but it was always a good day for the bailiff when she got to cuff a temperamental lawyer, even if she was a friend.

"Robbins, you know the drill." Alex, better known to the courts as Bailiff Karev, waited for Arizona to remove her jewelry and place it securely in her locking briefcase before she turned to let Alex cuff her hands. It didn't go unnoticed by Richard that the woman, in his courtroom asking for a divorce, removed her wedding bands to the safety of her bag. The small act only fueled his belief that he was doing the right thing.

"Same cell, away from general population." The judge didn't bother hiding his grin.

"Damn it, Arizona. You never know when to shut the hell up." Callie growled as they were escorted from the courtroom.

"Just like you don't know how to keep it in your pants?" Arizona's retort still confused her wife. She could never … would never cheat on her, but Callie figured it was less about that and just another jab at who she was when they had first met. When they'd met, Callie stopped the one-night stands and bed hopping cold turkey; for her, it felt like love at first sight and nothing else mattered. All her internal turmoil about her sexuality and religious upbringing that had taken her from bed to bed became nonexistent as she fell head over heels for Arizona. All of a sudden, she didn't feel like a failure and this disgusting person she was made to believe she was. Loving Arizona felt so real and so right and Callie finally felt whole.

When Callie said nothing, Arizona almost crumbled from the pain of silence as they were released into the cell. For Arizona, Callie's silence said it all. "Exactly, Calliope. I found the proof. Who was it? Mark? Your paralegal, April? Both?" Arizona snapped.

"Keep it quiet in here." Cristina could see the obvious signs that Callie was about to break and being on the job, there was little she could do to help her.

Catching onto Callie's body physically shaking as she rubbed at her wrists from the cuffs that Cristina had probably put on too tightly, Alex, too, felt bad. Arizona was in court form and that meant she'd be cruel and break her wife down just because she could if they didn't step in. They both knew what Richard was doing and though the women needed to suffer, they didn't need to do it at each other's hands.

"That's enough, Robbins. I've got something to go and do, but if you two behave, I'll bring your case files for you to work on." Alex knew bribing Arizona with work would keep her fangs for her wife at bay for the time being. She was a workaholic and their case files would keep them busy throughout the night … maybe two if they wouldn't cooperate at first. Nobody saw them folding easily, so the two nights could easily become four or more.

"Fine," Arizona huffed, plopping down noisily on the metal bed across from her wife. She knew she had already pissed Richard off; making her wife cry would only make matters worse at the moment.

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><p>Callie's lightweight suit did nothing to shield her body from the cold metal of the holding cell bed. Arizona knew this was the case as she watched her wife curled up away from her facing the wall, her still body shaking long after she had silently cried herself to sleep. Taking off her own suit blazer, Arizona quietly placed the garment over her wife's sleeping form before returning to her previous position against the wall where she could keep an eye on the door. She wasn't watching Callie sleep, worrying over the stress a night in jail would put on her wife, and she wasn't feeling guilty about it. Callie just happened to be in her eyesight and that was all.<p>

Sighing heavily, Arizona realized Richard intended to punish them and she had nobody to blame but herself as she settled in for the long night when they had yet to be freed as darkness crept into the small window. Grabbing the case files that Alex had smuggled in, Arizona opened first Callie's current case. They still shared a firm and she had a right to see what Callie was working on, too.

Having slept clear through dinner, hoping to wake only in the morning, Callie's bladder was obviously not on the same wavelength as her brain. Rolling over, she noticed Arizona was still awake which surprised her none. She often didn't go to bed, choosing whatever case had her attention over her wife. Even in jail, things obviously didn't change.

"You were cold." Arizona looked up as Callie looked confused at the blazer in her lap.

"Oh, thanks," she mumbled, feeling silly when Arizona just shrugged it off.

"Yeah, whatever. You missed dinner, but Cristina left you some rolls." Arizona's voice was sharp and dismissive as she returned her attention to the case in front of her.

"Could you …" Callie looked from the small stainless steel toilet to her wife and back again, hoping she didn't have to ask for privacy with the toilet displayed in the middle of the cell for ALL to see.

Arizona could only roll her eyes, "I've had my mouth down there with you screaming my name and you can't pee in front of me now?" Callie's embarrassment only hurt her pride so she, less than tactfully, needed to point it out.

Hoping the time in the cell had cooled her wife down, Callie was only proven wrong as Arizona continued to be nothing but cruel. "Fine, Arizona. Enjoy the flipping show," she snapped, making her way over to the toilet.

"I'm sure Mark would be much better suited to enjoy my leftovers." Arizona purposely kept eye contact with the pained brown eyes as Callie relieved herself.

"What the hell is your problem?" Callie was tired of all the Mark jabs. He hadn't been an issue in years, but now, Arizona used him against Callie every chance she got.

"YOU. You are my problem. Just finish up and go back to sleep. I can't deal with you right now." Arizona threw down the file in her hands, standing up as Callie righted her clothes.

"It must be so hard being perfect, Arizona. Why the hell did you even marry me if you knew I'd never live up to your standards?" Callie flushed the toilet before washing her hands and grabbing the rolls to soak up some of her killer acid indigestion from skipping meals and meds.

"Apparently I didn't marry you for your promise of monogamy because that's just one big joke." Through the dissolution of their marriage, that's the big thing that burned her like no other: Callie's inability to remain faithful and literally shoving it in Arizona's face hurt her more than anything else ever had. When Arizona said I do, she meant forever. Callie was the love of her life and she never thought in a million years that they'd be here, putting a deadline, an end date, an expiration on said forever.

"Why am I even bothering defending myself to you? You'll never listen unless it's in some manila folder with two expert witness testimonies; my words are useless." Rubbing at her chest from the burn of the acid, Callie tried to shake the painful memories away. When they first got married, she would leave cute little love notes in case files Arizona was working on. Now the only way they could communicate without a huge fight breaking out had turned the little shows of affection into nothing but a painful reminder of failure. Memos were now left in the same manila folders, the notes always straight to the point, no longer with hearts doodled on the border or declarations of love.

"You see a doctor for your indigestion yet or are you waiting for somebody to do it for you?" Arizona was pretty sure Callie had another ulcer and this knowledge was cemented for her as she watched Callie tear the bread into small bites. Arizona knew Callie hadn't eaten since breakfast and had to be famished since it was now the wee hours of the next morning, but she was eating slowly obviously to avoid the pain from the growing hole in her. Reading through Callie's current case and watching her consume antacids like candy, Arizona wouldn't admit it, but she was worried.

"Why do you even care?" Between her own divorce and fighting for Mrs. Tyler's case against her son who was trying to put the old lady away just to collect on her fortune, Callie had no time to see a doctor. Arizona only piled on the menial workload any spare chance she got, which wasn't any help either.

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><p>"How are things going?" Richard approached Cristina and Alex as they sat playing cards a short distance away from the cell occupied by the two women. He had spent the evening at the prison typing up the last few loose ends of his plan. Before he could get Arizona and Callie on board, everyone else needed to be as well. He just hoped they were an easier sell than his last had been.<p>

"Robbins has been working all night and Callie was asleep until about thirty minutes ago. They started arguing again, but we decided to let them go at each other now. Callie is a bit less emotional and the silence was killing us." Alex shrugged as if he didn't really give a care, but in reality, he did. Even if he didn't have a small crush on Arizona, he still would have cared. The two lawyers had gotten him out of some serious trouble a few years before and got him on track and the bailiff job. He owed them and would do whatever it took to pay them back. The judge's plan was crazy, but Alex knew it would take crazy to get through to the women and it could work.

"How much longer?" Cristina acted impatient, but she was just as worried. Callie's year as a law clerk was her first year with Chief Judge Webber as an assignment and Cristina was a moody bitch who didn't want a desk job. Two months into her first year on the police force, she was shot and unable ever to return to fieldwork. It was the courts or nothing for her, so when her attitude pushed everyone else away and almost cost her the only job she could have, Callie's badass set her straight and stuck by her through it all. She had made Cristina's transition from her dream job to the reality that was now her life, easier, although the woman would never dare to admit it.

"I'll let them get it out of their systems tonight and approach them tomorrow. You two go home and enjoy your weekend. I appreciate all your help." Richard knew they wouldn't rat him out for abusing his power because they were all family. In reality, Callie and Arizona should have been sent over to the prison for the weekend, but Richard couldn't set his plan in motion if that were the case; he was breaking tons of laws, but he had no choice.

"Chief." Mark approached after the two bailiffs had been dismissed. He'd waited in his own chambers until Richard had returned so as not to be seen by any late working staff roaming the halls.

"Mark." Richard nodded for him to take a seat while he shuffled the cards left out on the small card table in front of him.

"Is it going to work?" Mark hadn't seen such a mess since the Princess Diana divorce, and at this point, he doubted Arizona and Callie were even repairable.

"You're a judge; we're the best manipulators there are." Richard grinned like Alice In Wonderland's Cheshire Cat. Mark had only been on the bench a few years in comparison to the Chief judge of twenty years, but all judges got there the same way: hard work, one hundred hour weeks, and taking down the competition any way they could without looking back.

"This is Arizona and Callie, Chief; it's like they were made to foil us." Mark sighed. Callie and Arizona had made judges cry from the bench; they weren't the most beloved attorneys because of that.

"And we both know them intimately enough to counteract that. Some of us more intimately than others." Richard looked hard at the younger judge. Arizona's claim of Callie's infidelity fell directly into his lap.

"Look, Richard, I might sleep with every young lawyer and law clerk to look my way, but I draw the line at messing up my best friend's marriage." Mark scoffed at the implication.

"Really?" The older man simply raised an eyebrow in protest.

"Addison was a very long time ago and I learned my lesson. Plus, Callie has never looked back in my direction since Robbins came into the picture. Arizona is it for her. If Callie's having extramarital affairs, it's not with me, and she's not sharing anything about it with me either, and I'm her confidante, Richard." Mark couldn't believe it when he read Arizona's filing for divorce three months earlier; her accusations of Callie's infidelity were so far off base. But something did happen between the two of them, that much was obvious.

Whatever happened, Mark and Richard planned to fix it. Up until the alleged murder of Meredith Grey, they had no clue what they were going to do to help save the women's marriage, but now Richard's plan seemed to be their only option, which was better than no plan. The disappearance and alleged homicide of Mark's oldest friend's wife coupled with Callie and Arizona's soon-to-be involvement in the case would only put Mark awkwardly in the middle, so he had to step back from it all and pretend he wasn't as closely involved as truly was the case. It was only going to get messier, much messier for all parties involved.

"We have about five hours is my guess, until they tire themselves out fighting. Blackjack." Richard dealt the cards as he heard the women's voices rise over each other again in another pointless argument.

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><p><strong>Disclaimer:<strong> I don't own any of the characters from Grey's Anatomy.


	2. Chapter 2

**Author's Note**: Thank you as always goes to my very lovely and awesome beta and friend-LibraryNerd, my very dear friend and writing buddy StopBreathe, and my fabulous personal artist (and awesome artist in general) 2damnpretty2die. You all are such inspirations to me, thank you.

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><p><em><strong>Circumstantial Evidence- Chapter Two reuploaded with changes 425/2013**_

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><p><em><strong>In an alternate universe, we meet attorneys Calliope Torres and Arizona Robbins. ... Word.<strong>_

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><p>During a stalemate in the staring contest between the two women, Arizona had fallen asleep with her back against the wall. That was a huge relief to both Callie and the men down the hall. Callie could hear the occasional snort of laughter coming from her best friend, along with Richard's gruff chuckle, but she'd seen neither of them and as the sun rose, she was starting to get annoyed. Being held in contempt of court was one thing, but usually after an apology, they'd be released. They'd seen nobody to apologize to.<p>

Callie's body was stiff, her head was pounding, and she needed her antacids like Arizona needed legal-sized folders as a wall between them in bed. That's what life had turned into for them before Arizona presented her with divorce papers. If Arizona came to bed at all, there was always a mountain of legal briefings separating the two as if she couldn't survive without work in her hands at all times.

Callie shouldn't have been surprised when she was served but the accusations in it were way off base. Arizona had placed the blame of the dissolution of their marriage solely in Callie's hands, claiming marital indiscretions along with a handful of other irreconcilable differences. Now Callie knew she had her own responsibility in their demise, but she never strayed from her vows in any capacity and that included the alleged adultery.

Not that Arizona would listen to her; her wife stopped seeing her a long time ago. Arizona was always working toward their dream until one day Callie forgot what their dream even was. They both wanted a firm and steady life to raise children in, Arizona because she moved around a lot as a child as a military brat and Callie because her home life was always a dictatorship of hell, but they were never stable enough for Arizona's liking. It was always next year, once we get a little more money in savings. Next year when we hire more staff attorneys to take part of the workload off of us. After this big case, after that … except the bank account was never big enough, they never hired any more attorneys because Arizona didn't trust anyone to get the job done, there was always another big case around the corner, and always another excuse why.

The big Victorian that Callie had pictured with a nursery and toys scattered around, with giggles and cuddling and warmth and love, now sat void of anything but storage for their closed case files. The room they'd together painted yellow, decorating for their future, now sat closed tight. Dust three years thick coated the furniture, because after three years of hoping, Callie finally shut the door, unable even to venture down the hall to that side of the top floor. Yes, she knew their marriage was over, but not for what she saw as lack of trying on her part.

Callie loved Arizona. Even sitting in the jail cell because of her wife, she still loved her, but they were living proof that love just wasn't enough. When she was served with divorce papers, she realized it was indeed finally time for her to move on. She was thirty-six years old and if she didn't go after what was left of her own dreams, she had no one but herself to blame. With or without Arizona, Callie was going to make it.

"Thank God." Callie jumped up, seeing Richard standing in the cell doorway.

"Not so fast." His voice brought Arizona fully awake. "If you want out, you're going to need to do something for me.'

"No more yelling in your courtroom. I'm sorry. I never meant to disrespect you." Callie knew the spiel almost as well as her wife.

"Don't make me promises that neither of you can keep." Richard laughed; going up against each other, he knew that would never happen.

"Then what do you want from us?" Arizona could read Richard almost as well as he could read her. She could hear the gears working in his head.

"A hold on your divorce proceedings …"

"No way!" Arizona interrupted before he could finish. "NO way in hell!"

"Then enjoy the rest of your weekend." The chief judge turned as Callie whimpered.

"Fine, how long?" Callie would do almost anything at this point to get out of the cell.

"No. I can stay in here until Monday. Seventy-two hour hold; deal with it, Calliope," Arizona snarled.

"Richard, wait. Please," Callie begged, ignoring her wife as she made her way to the cell door to stop him.

"Sorry, Callie. I need both of you to agree." He shrugged with planned indifference.

Turning toward her wife, her eyes were pleading, "Just hear him out, please," she begged. Seventy-two hours without meds would kill her stomach. Seventy-two hours stuck in a cell with her bitter wife would destroy her mental state. Seventy-two hours was just not something she could do.

"Fine. What do you want?" Arizona begrudgingly agreed to hear him out, but only because she really didn't want to waste any more time behind bars.

"I've reviewed your case load and nothing screams of vital importance. All your cases can be transferred to Altman and Hunt with your supervision over the matters of course …" Richard watched anger flare in Arizona's eyes at the thought of giving up her precious work to someone, to anyone, else. "I have a very important matter that needs your immediate and undivided attention. I'll let you out, today, if you agree to take the case … together. When it's over, I'll review your own divorce, split everything fairly down the middle. I'll do all the legwork for you both and you'll never have to see each other again."

"The firm?" The idea of a painless divorce after the previous few tumultuous months actually sounded nice to Arizona, but she wasn't ready just yet to budge.

"Split. Your clients can decide with whom to stay." This was his intention the whole time anyway.

"The house?" Callie wanted the house a lot more than she let on. Maybe some of it was to hurt her wife, but it was her home. It was the only place she had left that was home.

"You know when you can't agree on marital property, it will be sold and proceeds split." Selling their Victorian would be painful, even for Richard. They'd worked so hard on making the house a home.

"What if we can figure something out before then?" Arizona couldn't part with the only thing she had left of them.

"You'll have until the trial is over." Which was exactly what he hoped would be just enough time for them.

"Why us?" Callie knew Richard had a plethora of attorneys at his beck and call.

"Because you're the best and this defendant needs the best." Richard knew how hard the case was going to be; his friend needed everything she could to make it out of jail or she could possibly spend the rest of her life behind bars for something he knew she didn't do. "But I need both of you. This case will take up all your time. That means working together, living together, spending time together without killing each other. I want you on it 24-7 except when you're sleeping."

"What do we really get out of it? Come Monday, we can just be back in your courtroom fighting again and not have to put up with your blackmail, Richard," Arizona argued; she would NOT be living with her wife ever again if she could help it.

"And I'll keep throwing you in this cell every time one of you steps out of line. You're smart, Robbins, you two will spend more time in contempt than actually having it out. You get your divorce and I save my friend. We all win." Richard knew, of the two women, Arizona would be the hard sell.

"We could get you recused." Arizona was not willing to break so easily.

"Please do. Every judge in this courthouse would love to put you behind bars and they won't be so nice. As much as you're well loved, you are just as despised and you know it. But please, take your circus and limited chances elsewhere." It was a dare and everybody knew it.

"I'll do it." Callie finally spoke up. She couldn't turn him down even if she wanted to. He never asked for favors of the two and they both more than owed him.

"Have fun by yourself," Arizona snapped at her wife.

"I'll let you think on it. I'll check back in on you later." Richard smiled at the women and left.

They sat in silence for hours. Callie could tell Arizona was seriously considering it as she chewed her lips like she always did when contemplating things. Arizona stared off into nothing and Callie didn't want to annoy her into a no. Arizona was on board until Richard said living together. Granted, it was a big house and they could occupy separate floors, never having to see each other aside from shared common space, but Arizona didn't want to be in the same house as her wife. She didn't want to be in the same state as her wife anymore.

"Think about it this way, Arizona. We take the case and get his friend off, you'll get your precious divorce, and you'll never have to see me again. This will probably be faster than the divorce at the rate we're going, anyway. Do you really want to trail this out? You've done everything else at lightning speed, so just take his offer," Callie pleaded. Not that she wanted the divorce anyway, but spending any more time in jail was something she wanted even less.

"You're always trying to do things to placate other people. You've never been able to say no. Time and again, you take on hopeless case after hopeless case; someone says jump, you say how high. Can't you put your bleeding heart aside for five minutes?" Arizona wasn't as annoyed over Callie's bleeding heart as she made herself out to be, but she wasn't going to tell her wife this either. Part of the reason she fell in love with her wife was how Callie put others' needs before herself. Taking the pro-bono cases over the multi-million dollar ones because she believed the less fortunate deserved the best just like everybody else was a complete turn on for Arizona. Callie would go without pay and in the beginning of their business partnership, sometimes days of meals that consisted of only cereal to help the grieving widow or family down on their luck before she'd take the rich and messy divorce case on, because she couldn't turn her back on them; she couldn't say no.

So many times, Arizona would make anonymous donations on behalf of Callie's less fortunate clients to her own firm because it was the only way to put money in Callie's bank account. Yes, they had a joint account for bills, but they kept separate ones for everything else and Arizona hated knowing that her wife wouldn't let her help. Callie didn't take handouts, but to Arizona, it wasn't a handout. They were married and they were supposed to support each other.

Arizona watched Callie shut down at her cruel words. All those hopeless cases, Callie still won; there was more of her blood, sweat, and tears in them than any other lawyer would've put forth and it was a low blow for her wife to attack. Maybe Arizona would be less critical of Callie's broken No Button had her wife used it when she filed for divorce, but instead, for the first time ever, Callie conceded defeat, packing up and moving out without looking back. She didn't fight Arizona. She just left. And Arizona couldn't reconcile it and went into attack mode. She wanted Callie to hurt and was doing a damn good job to make it happen.

"Richard!" Hours passed again before either spoke with Callie standing at the cell door hollering for the man they knew was down the hall.

"What are you doing?" Arizona had fallen asleep only to be woken up by her wife's bellows.

"I want my lawyer. I can't keep doing this with you, so you go and be your own counsel, that's fine, but I can't. I have cases to handle and I can't put all my efforts into fighting you. It's not fair to them and I don't have it in me. I can't spend any more time in jail and you've made it clear you won't take Richard up on his offer, so I'm getting my own attorney, Arizona. You can fight with them." Callie was tired, she hurt, and saw no light at the end of the tunnel.

Hearing Richard's footsteps getting closer, Arizona started to panic. Callie was folding, she was completely giving up, and that rocked Arizona to her very core. Once someone else took over Callie's part of the divorce, Arizona knew it was truly over.

"Yes, Torres." Richard tried to hide the smirk he carried down the hall as he faced the two women. Callie looked tired as he approached and Arizona, scared.

"We'll do it," Arizona squeaked before her wife would talk.

Turning in shock to face her wife, Callie stood, jaw dropped.

Shifting to avoid eye contact and what she knew was the obvious look of surprise and shock on her wife's face, Arizona looked directly at the judge. "We'll do it," she repeated without missing a beat. Richard took the cell keys from his pocket, Callie still unmoved since Arizona's agreement.

"Get yourselves settled at home and drop your cases off at Altman and Hunt tomorrow. We'll meet Monday morning at the prison to discuss your case and you'll meet the defendant then." He opened the cell door as Arizona quickly collected the mess she'd made. And Callie was still frozen on the spot.

"Are you coming?" Arizona brushed past her wife and Richard; she was half way down the hall before Callie caught up with her.

"What the hell was that about?" Callie barked as she caught up. Arizona agreeing was not something Callie even fathomed would occur.

"You can't afford a decent lawyer, Callie, and I'd eat anyone else in that courtroom alive. I wanted a fair fight and you were the only one I'd get it from, so we'll do it this way. At least now I don't have to be the laughing stock of the bar once I'd have blown open your affairs for everyone to see. I won't have to be the butt of any jokes about how I couldn't keep my wife interested outside the courtroom." Arizona's bitterness bled through as she mentioned, yet again, Callie's indiscretions.

"I didn't cheat on you!" Callie growled.

"Whatever, Calliope. It's not even an issue anymore." Arizona ignored what she saw as a big lie anyway. "Where are you staying?"

"I've been renting a room out at the motel off of 80." Callie cringed when Arizona shot her another disgusted look.

"That sleazy place? How can you even afford it, anyway?" Arizona knew Callie's bank account had been bordering on being in the red. That's how she found out about the affair(s). Her wife's bank account went from a couple thousand to less than nothing in less than a week and Arizona knew that she had just cut herself a paycheck for the first time in months except for paying their joint bills. It was the only reason, in Arizona's book, for the missing money.

"Aria secretly forwarded me a loan. She told Daddy it was some investment, I think. It was all I could afford without going through it before I got a down payment on a new apartment." Callie knew Arizona wouldn't be happy about the loan or her current residence, but she couldn't make Arizona happy for so long now, it really mattered none.

"How much?" Arizona was livid the moment Callie mentioned she borrowed money from her sister. Livid.

"It's not your problem; she said I can pay it back whenever." Callie sighed knowing they were going to fight about this, but oblivious as to the reason why.

"How much did you borrow, Calliope?" Arizona growled as they reached their cars.

"Ten grand," Callie quietly admitted.

"Fine. Go get your stuff and meet me at home. I'll pick up the case files and we can go over them and outline for Teddy and Owen tonight. I'll pick up food." Arizona didn't wait for an answer, simply shutting her door and driving off leaving Callie still standing in the middle of the parking lot.

Arizona was pissed and annoyed to top off being already pissed and annoyed. Callie did just as much work at the firm and she deserved a damn paycheck even if she did mostly pro-bono and now she was indebted to her sister of all people and that wasn't cool. Her big sister, the one who wouldn't stand up to Callie's family in order to save her own trust fund, but still in secret stayed in contact with her sister. Arizona despised Aria's role in their life because in her opinion you stood up for those you loved regardless of the situation. If Aria really loved her sister as she claimed, she wouldn't be continuing a relationship with her behind their parents' backs.

* * *

><p>Callie sat in her car for half an hour, trying to work up the nerve to go into the house she had left ninety-seven days earlier. The house that was full of them and their failed attempt at a life together. Reaching for her vibrating phone, she saw a text from Arizona reading for her just to come inside already. Little did she know, Arizona saw her pull up and though she was grateful for the extra time to collect herself, it was getting late and dinner would dry out soon if Callie didn't come inside. Arizona had collected the case files, grocery shopping for food since the refrigerator was empty, and called Aria to give the woman a piece of her mind. Little did she realize Aria would do just the same, making Arizona feel guilty for putting Callie in the position even to need money.<p>

Hearing the front door open, Arizona finished her third glass of wine in thirty minutes preparing for her wife. After another fifteen minutes and Callie had failed to join her in the kitchen, Arizona ventured off to find her.

Knocking on the guest bedroom door, Arizona entered at the inaudible, muffled response to find her wife, face down on the bed.

"Dinner's ready." Arizona refused to risk any further in from the doorway.

"I'll eat in here." Callie turned her head so she could actually be heard since Arizona obviously didn't hear her say just to go away. The room smelled like Arizona and it made Callie both crave her and hate her just the same. Arizona had slept in the room often, before the divorce papers, long after Callie had gone to bed, saying she didn't want to disturb her sleeping wife. Callie never believed her wife's excuses as to why she didn't come to bed. She knew Arizona didn't want to share a bed with her wife any longer even if she didn't know why.

"We have to go through the cases. Please come down, Callie." Arizona didn't want to wait; she wanted to get everything out of the way.

"Fine," Callie huffed, knowing that Arizona was right but wanting the space from her wife nonetheless.

"Callie, don't fine me. You hate fine. That word means nothing to you but disinterest and annoyance, so don't. Just don't. We both agreed to do this and I'm just as unhappy about it as you, okay?" Arizona snapped. Callie often flew off the handle when Arizona answered with a fine or sure. She saw them as crap, cop-out answers, and Arizona and Callie both knew this.

"Yeah, I already got that, Arizona." Bitterness was apparent, to say the least. Callie didn't understand why Arizona didn't just let her get a damn lawyer if she was going to be so obstinate about everything.

Changing her tactic, Arizona knew a foul mood of her own would only put Callie on the defensive and they'd get nothing accomplished. "I made chicken cakes. I know they won't give you an attack; I grilled them as opposed to frying and I made cinnamon apple bake, too."

Realizing Arizona was trying, Callie rolled off the bed and padded toward the door seeing relief wash over Arizona's face before she too turned and headed for the kitchen.

* * *

><p>"Mrs. Tyler's case …" Arizona began only to be quickly interrupted.<p>

"Is staying with me." Callie grabbed the file from her wife's hand.

"Richard said all cases …"

"I don't care, I'm not handing her off." Callie argued, interrupting Arizona again.

"Callie, I know she's your only paying client at the moment but that doesn't matter, just cut yourself a pay check and …"

"NO! I don't care if I ever get a red cent out of her; she has a huge fight ahead of her and she needs me. It's not about the money, Arizona." Callie growled her interruption this time, doing her best to get her point across before she exploded.

"It's never about the money." Arizona snapped before taking a deep breath to calm herself down. "Look, Teddy and Owen will do her justice, Callie." Arizona couldn't figure out why her wife was going against a direct order from Richard.

"NO! I said, NO! Her son is trying to take everything from her. Families aren't supposed to do that. They're supposed to love you regardless and support you and not use money against you so I'm keeping the freaking case." Callie was livid because Arizona didn't get it and she probably never would as far as Callie was concerned. Especially now.

"So you'll just piss Richard off, but okay." Arizona watched the anger clearly dancing across her wife's face. "We'll just cross that bridge when we get to it." She realized Mrs. Tyler's case was a personal fight for her wife. Even after all these years, estranged from her parents, it still hurt her wife deeply. Arguing with Callie over it would get them nowhere but a fight and they needed their truce to remain intact if they were going to work together. Arizona got it more than she let on even if she feigned ignorance to Callie's motives just to get at her wife. She remembered holding her then broken fiancée after her parents had shown up without notice to disown her. Arizona didn't understand why they needed to do it in person, publically humiliating her at the courthouse of all places but they seemed to really want to drive that knife in as far as it could go. And then there was her dysfunctional relationship with her older sister, Aria. Arizona didn't understand how the woman could be part of ostracizing her sister but at the same time financially support her, stand up for her to Arizona, and bust Callie's balls when she stepped out of line as if she had the right to such luxuries anymore. Maybe it was because Arizona didn't have a sibling to understand the dynamics and Callie's situation was so foreign to her realm of understanding that she was being too hard on Aria. She did after all protect her baby sister when it came down to it and maybe just maybe as strong as she was, she just wasn't strong enough to stand up to her parents, so she did what she could. Aria did fly out as soon as she was able to after the fallout without bringing attention to herself for an unplanned trip out west. And she did take over caring for her grieving sister with compassion and concern that only somebody that loved you with their entirety could. But she still went home to them and she is still under their thumb and Aria still confuses the hell out of Arizona.

"If we're done, I'd like to go to bed." Callie stood up without waiting for an answer.

"Sure, we're meeting Teddy and Owen at ten so I'll see you in the morning." Arizona knew by the tears glazed in her wife's eyes that they were done for the night even if they weren't actually done. An emotional Callie wouldn't be a good thing so she let her wife go.

* * *

><p>After being thoroughly searched and given the usual run-down of do's and don'ts of the prison, Richard met the women in the hall before they could meet with their mystery client.<p>

"You've got your job cut out for you. She's moody and probably not going to be very cooperative, but I know you'll be just fine." Richard sighed. He'd spent the better part of the morning fighting with their new client and knew it was about to get a lot worse.

"Could you at least give us a clue of the case before we walk in there looking like complete idiots?" Arizona was tired; exhausted. She hadn't slept much of any time since Callie's return and it was starting to wear on her nerves. Actually, she'd slept very little since they were thrown in jail, and she blamed Richard for every lost minute of sleep.

"You'll be defending the woman accused of the alleged murder of Meredith Grey." Richard opened the door, leading the women into the room.

"Oh sweet Lord, you brought me Tweedle-Dee and Tweedle-Dum? I'm going to get the chair. I'd have better luck getting off with Thelma and Louise; these two will kill each other before opening arguments." As the accused woman tried to stand in protest, Richard pushed down on her shoulder, telling her to shut up if she knew what was good for her, while Callie and Arizona came face to face with the infamous murder suspect Miranda Bailey.

* * *

><p><strong>Disclaimer:<strong> I don't own any of the characters from Grey's Anatomy.


	3. Chapter 3

**Author's Note**: Thank you as always goes to my very lovely and awesome beta and friend-LibraryNerd, my very dear friend and writing buddy StopBreathe, and my fabulous personal artist (and awesome artist in general) 2damnpretty2die. You all are such inspirations to me, thank you.

* * *

><p><em><strong>Circumstantial Evidence- Chapter Three reuploaded with changes 425/2013**_

* * *

><p><em><strong>In an alternate universe, we meet attorneys Calliope Torres and Arizona Robbins. ... Word.<strong>_

"No way. I'll get off another way." Bailey continued to argue with Richard, not bothering to look at either woman.

"Miranda." Arizona sighed. She knew about the case, had followed it from the beginning, but she didn't realize they'd finally arrested their only suspect. She'd been too involved in her own divorce case against Callie, forgetting her friend in need. Arizona knewBailey and never believed she could have done such a thing, but the evidence obviously proved otherwise because here they were.

"Don't you Miranda, me, Torres. I am not putting my life in your hands. If you can't make a marriage work, I don't trust your abilities outside of the bedroom." The woman in orange out right refused, crossing her arms over her chest in a sign of defiance.

"Great! I get both my partner and client to beat up on me." Callie mumbled under her breath. Arizona had been on her case all morning; _You can't survive on toast. You're drinking too much coffee. You're not wearing that are you? _Callie was already on edge before they had even met their blackmail … client.

"Like you're innocent, Callie Torres. You couldn't make it work, either." Bailey was hitting below the belt and she knew it, but Callie and Arizona seriously angered her to no end. Their relationship was what everyone else wanted; their love what everyone else aspired for and when times got tough, they bailed. She knew they were the best lawyers around but as a team, she didn't trust them anymore; as a _team, _they sucked.

"If this is how it's going to go, I'm out, Richard." Callie was done being everyone's punching bag.

"Go ahead and quit, Calliope. You're both good at that." Bailey snapped at the young lawyer; she was a moody person before all this but jail had just made it worse.

Throwing a death glare in Richard's direction, Callie turned and walked out. She'd risk jail over any more abuse at this point. It was bad enough being confined with the woman that didn't trust her, her wife; Callie was not going to take it from a client too even if that client was one of her oldest and dearest friends.

"I got her to calm down. We'll come back later in the work to sort out the semantics." Arizona joined her wife on the bench outside of the prison where Callie had gone to wait since they drove in together and it was Arizona's car.

"Good for you!" Callie mocked her wife's enthusiasm. She wasn't doing this anymore and she didn't care.

"Damn it, Callie. I thought _this _is what you wanted." Being stuck in the house together and not talking had started to get to her, so in Arizona fashion, she nit-picked and unfortunately, for Callie, she was the lone and easiest target.

"What I wanted? _This is what I wanted?_" Callie scoffed. "What I wanted, _Arizona_, was for my wife to believe I wasn't unfaithful. What I wanted, _Arizona_, was for my wife to actually come to bed once in a flipping blue moon. What I wanted, _Arizona, _was a family and future with you. This …" Callie threw her arms around between them, "… this is _far _from what I wanted." And with that she got up and started for the pavement.

"Where are you going, Calliope?" Arizona jumped up as her wife headed down the street without so much as a backwards glace. Typical Callie, always walking away before they were done, and that only succeeded in angering Arizona even more.

"Ya know what?" Callie shook her head at her wife." It doesn't matter where I'm going anymore … at least not where _you're_ concerned." She didn't wait for Arizona's response, she could probably figure it out anyway.

She had walked all over town in order to clear her mind but it only stirred her ever growing pot of irrepressible emotions even more. Arizona never gave her a chance to fight for them; she just ended it, and didn't even try herself. They fought for known hard-criminals tougher than they fought for their marriage and Callie couldn't reconcile that. Sure they had their problems, every married couple did, but they weren't problems worth ending love over. So what if Callie had money issues? Her family had used money against her and she didn't want to risk that happening ever again. Her lack of trust in Arizona not to repeat that was all on her, she knew that, but she had been burned so badly; so very badly. She never wanted money to ever be an issue between them because of that. And her friendship with Mark was of course an issue too, but that's where Arizona's trust in Callie faltered. Yes, they _had_ been intimate once upon a time during Callie's days of indiscretion, but Callie married Arizona and not Mark. Callie gave up her family for Arizona and not Mark. What more could she do to prove she was all in and that Mark was just her friend? None of that even mattered anymore, at least not to for the sake of their marriage.

Pulling up a bar stool at the local attorney hotspot Joe's, Callie went straight for the private stock. Walking did nothing for her mental state; it was time to go hardcore.

"Have you eaten at all today?" Cristina sat down next to the attorney ordering a drink of her own. Just like Callie, she'd been putting on her own brave face, but in her current company it wasn't necessary. Her best friend, Meredith, was gone, another woman, Miranda, whom she admired from her short-lived career on the force was accused of her best friend's murder, and she was pretty sure her husband, Owen, was having an affair with his partner, Teddy. Cristina was just as big of a mess as Callie.

"If you sit here, we will not talk about my ulcer; got it?" Callie got enough of it from Arizona; Cristina was _not _going to join in as well.

"You're drunk, Callie." By the slurring, Cristina thought drunk might be an understatement.

"Good because that's my goal." Callie signaled for a refill; if she could still feel the pain, she wasn't drunk enough in her book.

"You taking the case?" Cristina knew Miranda Bailey deserved the best, but she was still accused of killing Meredith, and Cristina was so torn over it all.

"Yup. It'll give me the time I need to cut ties here without burning my bridges in the process." Callie swallowed the glass' contents in one gulp, cringing at the burning from her throat all the way through to her stomach.

"Cut ties here?" Drunken Callie was honest Callie, this much Cristina knew for sure.

"Once this trial is over, no more rain. No more cold. No more reminders of my failures. I'm going home." Callie thought at first maybe she was being brash, but the more alcohol she consumed, the more she believed her plan to be a good one. Licking her wounds in Seattle was not going to happen; Arizona was and always would be everywhere.

"So you're just running away?" Cristina wasn't sure she could handle losing another friend.

"Yup!" Running away, hiding, abandoning ship, disappearing from the face of the earth, whatever description you put on it, she knew she was taking the chicken's way out.

"Did you have an affair?" Cristina would always support her friend regardless but she needed to know. She was going through the same thing Arizona might be; she needed to know.

"I'd no more cheat on my wife than you would, Owen. Yes Cristina, things were sucking between us, I won't deny that, but I love Arizona. I love my wife. I'd rather have things suck between us than nothing." She had put up with a lot because when Arizona remembered she _had _a wife things were great. Callie didn't doubt her wife's love for her, or didn't used to, just her devotion at times.

"Fight for her Callie. You two deserve better than this end." Cristina wouldn't admit it but she respected Callie and Arizona; looked up to them. She couldn't fathom that _this _was it.

"She doesn't want me to. She tried me without even hearing my case and already doled out the sentence. I will do everything I can to help Bailey but then I'm going home. I miss my family, Cristina. I miss them." Callie again downed the brown liquid in the glass the bartender had silently refilled with one swift gulp before she got off her stool.

Cristina knew Callie meant more than was being said. From the beginning, Callie and Arizona were all over the baby, family, sickeningly forever crap, but that was as far as they ever got. Callie missed Arizona and their dream family. What _could have been_ was killing her friend.

"Callie?" Cristina timidly called after her as she reached the door.

"I'll miss you too, kid." Callie sighed; even in her drunken state, she could read Cristina like a book.

It was past nine when Callie made her way back into the old Victorian having left Arizona fuming for over twelve hours now. Twelve hours to stew over her wife's words, over her abrupt disappearance, and Arizona had experienced it all, from guilt to anger to worry, and now she was back at square one with anger when she saw her wife stumble through the front doors clearly drunk off her ass.

"Where the hell have you been?" Arizona snapped at the arrival of her other half. Other half for now.

"Out." Callie merely dropped her bag by the front door, shed her coat in the same spot on the floor while trying to ignore the pounding behind her eyes and avoid the verbal one from her wife.

"Out? You're drunk, Callie!" Here Arizona was worrying and Callie was out drinking.

Spinning to face her wife, Callie realized it probably wasn't the best idea as she grabbed for the banister to hold herself up. "I like to think of it as clear of mind."

"What the hell does that mean?" Arizona wasn't sure she wanted to go down this road with her wife in this state, but it was a little too late for that now.

"It means, _fine_, Arizona." She'd been drinking her sorrows away for the better part of the afternoon and evening finally coming to what she believed was many sound conclusions for herself, their marriage, her life.

"Fine?" Callie's word game only proved to annoy her wife even more.

"You can have your precious divorce and your precious house and your precious firm and everything you ever wanted. When this trial is over, so are we. You get everything you ever wanted, Arizona." Callie steadied herself again, focusing on anything but the burning in her stomach and tears threatening to fall.

"So … I get it all?" Arizona looked cautiously and curiously at her wife; this was not the angry woman she'd been fighting for months now. Callie looked beyond broken and defeated.

"Yes, you get it _all_." Callie nodded, swallowing the sob climbing her throat.

"And what do you get?" Arizona was looking hard for the catch; there _had_ to be a catch.

"My family back. We're over, there's no reason for them to continue to ostracize me. I'm going home." At that very moment, Callie had nothing, nobody. She didn't plan for another relationship because Arizona was it for her. So, she'd patch things up with her family and try to live out whatever dreams she had left. What difference did it make whom she loved, that would never be an issue again.

"You're leaving? Just like that?" Panic was setting in; this was the calmest, most rational her wife had been throughout all this and it scared her.

"Just like that, Arizona? Really? There's nothing here for me anymore. _You_ were here and that's all that ever mattered but now that's over so why not?" Callie's family might have been wrong for their beliefs, they _were_ wrong, but they were still her family nonetheless, and now they would be all she had.

"You're moving back to Miami?" Lucia and Carlos would destroy her wife; sure, they'd accept her back with 'open arms' now that Arizona was out of the picture but not without consequences. Callie was sensitive, very sensitive, and they would make her suffer for her six plus years in 'sin'. She would take it, too; she wanted their love and approval that much, and now, with what she perceived as Arizona no longer loving her even if it was far from the truth, Callie had nothing to stop her from seeking theirs again.

"I haven't seen my mom in six years. Six years! My grandfather died and I couldn't say goodbye or even go to the funeral. I have nieces and nephews I've never met. I gave that all up for you … what a joke that turned out to be." Callie shook her head to rid the tears in her eyes but that only succeeded in releasing them. She had turned her back on her family for Arizona; yes, they put the ultimatum out there but she still loved Arizona enough to do it. She trusted the power of their love for each other to overcome anything. Arizona made her strong enough to do it and in reality, Callie would do it all over again but that wasn't an option anymore. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to go throw up." Callie disappeared around the staircase leaving Arizona to absorb her words once again.

* * *

><p>"Why are you here?" Arizona growled her voice dripping with pure disdain as she walked into her kitchen greeted with the sight of Mark flipping pancakes.<p>

"You'd have to ask my mom that question but I think it's safe to say too much booze and the faulty pull out method." Mark smirked and went back to his task at hand.

"Why are you in my house, Mark?" After a sleepless night, Arizona wasn't in the mood for games and she wasn't in the mood for this unwelcomed visitor even if he was her wife's best friend.

"Oh that? Maybe because your wife drank too much and upset the hole that's been growing in her stomach since you kicked her out. She threw up some blood and flipped out so I came over to take care of her." It was Mark's turn to glare. The two blonds had never really gotten along outside of a courtroom, and it had only gotten worse since the separation. Arizona saw him as some type of competition, when the truth of the matter was that there was never any competition for Arizona Robbins.

"Why didn't she just come get me?" That burned; they were in the same house and Callie _still_ called Mark. She _always_ called Mark. If her wife wasn't sneaking around making three o'clock in the morning phone calls or draining her bank account on who knows whatever she bought her lover, it was Mark who was in the way. As if the secrets her wife was keeping weren't enough, Arizona didn't need Mark's continued involvement in their life, rubbed in her face.

"She needed someone to take care of her, not lecture her about doctors or point out the obvious, Robbins." Until the last few months of their marriage, Mark really had no issues with his best friend's soon to be ex-wife aside from her jabs about his promiscuity and past relations with her wife. Even now as angry as he was with her, he still wanted to see them fix it. He'd known Callie for years and nobody made her even half as happy as Arizona on a bad day, but nobody had broken her half this bad either.

Mark was right, Arizona would have been critical of the ulcer and last night, after Callie's declaration, she probably would have been little help. "How is she?" Alcohol on top of the ulcer coupled with vomiting probably made for a sick woman today, and Arizona felt guilty. Her constant attacks along with the final straw of Bailey's were what pushed Callie over the edge and into the bar last night and she knew it. No, she didn't put the glass in her wife's hand but she might as well have.

"I have to get to the courthouse, why don't you find out yourself." Mark turned and shoved the breakfast plate into the Arizona's hands along with a large glass of milk. "No sugars, caffeine, or acids today; you can tell her _my_ orders." He knew Callie would fight Arizona; it was less likely to be the case if it came from him.

If she didn't have the warm food in her hands, she probably would have just waited until Callie came out on her own, but her wife needed to eat and Arizona really did want to see how she was feeling.

"Hi." Arizona timidly came through the door, "How are you feeling?"

She knew she was pale, she was shaky, had a killer headache, and generally felt like shit; seeing her wife made it all the worse. "Fine." She sounded as bad as she felt; hours of hugging the toilet had torn her throat to pieces.

"Mark made you breakfast before he left." Arizona ignored the well-deserved animosity in her wife's voice while joining her on the bed, letting Callie eat under her watchful eye.

Callie cleared her throat in an attempt for a less strained voice as she looked up at the woman obviously putting things aside for the time being. "Coffee?"

Shaking her head, she knew this might turn into a fight; her wife survived on coffee and little else most days. "Callie, come on. Not today, okay?" The genuine sincerity in her voice was the only thing keeping Callie from arguing back. She knew coffee wasn't the best thing for an ulcer anyway, especially not after making it worse with alcohol; lots and lots of alcohol.

Staying to make sure Callie ate, Arizona started to fill the uncomfortable silence the only way she knew how … work. "Since one of our PIs is presumed dead and the other one is incarcerated, we probably need to find another firm for the time being."

Slight panic crossed her face before she swallowed it back down, "No, we can do the leg work ourselves until we need one. I don't think we should bring _anyone_ else into this." She continued nibbling on the dry pancakes before her, contemplating if asking for syrup was too much but needing to change the subject before her wife read her mind, which had been her worry for months now.

"Do you think she did it?" Arizona didn't; Bailey was a bitch but definitely not capable of murder.

"Um, the evidence is pretty damning. You saw the blowout at the courthouse; Miranda did threaten her." Callie pushed the plate away, unable to eat anymore and hoping to end the conversation now that breakfast was over.

"How many times has she threatened one of us? That's just Bailey!" Before Arizona had left the woman to be escorted to her cell, Bailey had even threatened _her_. _Fix your marriage. Torres didn't cheat on you and if you got your head out of a damn legal pleading once in a while, you'd know that. That woman's devoted to you. Fix it or I'll beat you both myself._

"I know, I don't think she did it." Callie knew she didn't do it and this case might ruin everything. She wished Richard had never blackmailed them into it.

"Where the hell is Grey then?" That was what everyone was stuck on; if Bailey didn't kill her, where the hell did she disappear to and why? "But I guess that's up to us to find out. Are you in?" After last night, Arizona wasn't sure if Callie would just pick up and go home now. Sure, Miranda was their friend but Callie looked like she'd had enough.

"I'm in." Regardless of how mad and hurt she was, Callie wasn't going to bail on Bailey and she wasn't going to give up any time she had left with her wife either even if it was strained and painful.

"I'll go pick up copies of the police records and make an appointment to go over the evidence; why don't you just rest today and we'll talk when I get back tonight?" Sadly, Callie knew Arizona meant talk about the case; it's all they ever talked about … work.

Arizona got home later than expected to find another note that her wife had run out _somewhere_ and to not hold dinner for her. This had become the end of their marriage before Arizona finally just filed for divorce. Callie was never around anymore and she never would tell Arizona where she was; it was always a shrug and change of subject. Even as angry as she was, figuring Callie was probably with her lover, Arizona would wait on dinner for her wife because she knew she wouldn't eat otherwise and Callie needed to eat.

Needing a shower, Arizona made her way to the third floor of the old Victorian. The floor of which she currently occupied herself because Callie had taken the guest room on the second level. It had been a long day, to say the least, and she needed to wash it off before her wife got home and got the brunt of her irritation, even if some of it was justly aimed. Walking toward the larger of the showers down the hall, Arizona noticed a door ajar; the door nobody had touched in years. Opening it further, she didn't need the blinds to be drawn to see the clear outline of boxes in the center of the room. Turning the lights on to further investigate, the yellow room now sat almost bare save for the furniture and the new addition of boxes labeled _DONATION _clearly printed on every side. It wasn't just drunk babbling, Callie was really done. She'd packed up their dream; it was over. Grabbing the lone toy out of the crib, left unpacked, a toy from Arizona's own childhood, she hugged the bear tight to her chest as she sunk into the rocking chair. The full effect of what she'd done finally hit her as a storm of tears consumed her whole being.

* * *

><p><strong>Disclaimer:<strong> I don't own any of the characters from Grey's Anatomy.


	4. Chapter 4

**Author's Note**: Thank you as always goes to my very lovely and awesome beta and friend-LibraryNerd, my very dear friend and writing buddy StopBreathe, and my fabulous personal artist (and awesome artist in general) 2damnpretty2die. You all are such inspirations to me, thank you.

* * *

><p><em><strong>Circumstantial Evidence- Chapter Four reuploaded with changes 425/2013**_

* * *

><p><em><strong>In an alternate universe, we meet attorneys Calliope Torres and Arizona Robbins. ... Word.<strong>_

"I waited dinner for you last night." Arizona sat at the kitchen table reading the newspaper when her wife finally made an appearance shortly after ten. She tried to keep her voice light, free of any of the anger boiling just below the surface.

"Thanks but didn't you get my note? I said I'd be back late and that I'd catch something out." Callie grabbed a mug for coffee only to see Arizona had just made enough for a single cup; her own cup.

"I got it; I just figured you wouldn't actually eat. That you'd probably fill the hole with all those damn antacids you eat like candy and then get yourself full on your lover." Arizona still hadn't bothered to look up from her paper as Callie stormed around the kitchen looking for the coffee beans Arizona had purposely hidden from her. She did that partly to save Callie from any more crap irritating her ulcer and partly because she was being a bitch and she knew it.

"Excuse me?" Callie's nostrils flared as she stopped to glare at her wife.

"You heard me, Calliope." Arizona was still sore over the nursery and when Callie didn't come home until after midnight, her hurt turned into blind anger once again.

"I wasn't with a damn lover, I was doing _things_." Callie growled. It was too damn early for another fight, especially without coffee. Coffee that she couldn't find for the life of her and that only fueled her anger knowing very well that Arizona was hiding it from her.

"You get home well after midnight and I'm supposed to believe you were just out _doing things?_" She knew she had no right to question her wife's whereabouts any longer; she'd lost that right when she had Callie served with divorce papers but that made little difference. If they were going to be stuck under the same roof as one another, she deserved respect; she deserved for Callie to respect her enough to not have her sexual encounters and come home to her.

"Home? This _isn't_ a home and I couldn't care less what _you_ think anymore, Arizona." Having returned to her search for coffee, Callie was now furious. She had all but torn the kitchen apart while Arizona continued to sip her coffee, taunting her and she knew it.

"It's not a home because you broke it." Maybe hiding the coffee and attacking her wife weren't the brightest things to do at the same time but she hadn't thought through her own anger to see what a bad idea it was. It was a left hook to attack her wife and a knockout punch to hide Callie's much needed coffee supply.

"Whatever Arizona." Callie finally conceded in her hunt for caffeine and took the instant decaf out of the cabinet in hopes she could trick her body into believing it had the same powers though she doubted it would work. She'd had an extremely long night and needed a lift.

"You don't even bother trying to hide it or prove me wrong; that just shows how guilty you are." Arizona wasn't done with this conversation regardless of her wife's juvenile responses say Callie was.

"_I am not guilty of having an affair!_" Callie was so tired of this round robin with her wife; not now nor ever had she so much even looked at another woman since Arizona Robbins had come barreling into her life.

"Then where were you?" She deserved answers; she did and she didn't care how stupid this fight was. Arizona wanted to know where the hell Callie had been when she was supposed to be home taking care of herself. Supposed to be, being the key words there when instead she cleaned out the nursery and then disappeared for hours.

"Not with some lover you've made up in your head to rationalize why this joke of a marriage fell apart." Callie was so tired of taking Arizona's shit; she'd done it for too long in their marriage and she wasn't going to do it any longer.

"Where. Were. You?" Arizona was obviously not dropping this; she'd dug the hole too deep to stop now.

"Fine Arizona. You really want to know where I was last night?" Callie stopped dead in front of her wife, placing both hands on the table and glaring at the woman until she had Arizona's full attention. "I _was _with my lover. Someone that appreciates me and wants to come to bed _just because I'm there_. Someone that I don't keep secrets from because _I trust them_. Someone who doesn't have one hand in a client's file while the other one _is in me_. _That's where I was._" Feeling vindicated after driving her point home, she walked once again toward the teakettle to resume making her coffee. So what if she wasn't playing fair anymore but who said all was fair in love and war; this now being an all-out war for them. If Arizona wanted to believe Callie was having an affair, she'd let her. Arizona was going to believe it whether or not it was true; it just wasn't true.

Callie looked back to see her wife was looking up from her paper with shock apparent in her eyes. It was obvious Arizona again believed none of what had just come out of her mouth and it was finally about time she was taken serious even if all of it was said for the shock factor and nothing else. Callie got her point across nonetheless and that's what mattered right now.

"Are we done?" Vindication wore off just as quick for Callie as defeat took over. She had now even given up on the decaf coffee; she wanted to leave the room before something else could be said that she couldn't take back.

"Yes, we're done." Arizona whispered, still shocked by her wife's outburst. "Callie did you… I mean, ever …" She couldn't finish her thought, the things Callie said were cruel and mean and on point and Arizona felt like she'd been slapped across the face.

"The sad thing here is I never stopped loving you, I've just learned to live without you." She turned without another word and left the kitchen before Arizona could see the tears already decorating her cheeks.

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><p>*Insert flipping chapter break here because FF is being a butthead.*<p>

"Good morning Miranda!" Arizona's chipper façade was easily seen through by both Callie and Bailey but neither woman dared to question it as they knew it would more than likely start a fight between the married couple. The things Callie said to Arizona over breakfast got to her, cutting her deep. Regardless of whether or not her wife was having an affair was not the issue on the table for Arizona at the moment but the simple fact that if Callie was having an affair it was Arizona that had surely driven her into the arms of another. "Let's just get down to business, shall we?" She ignored the looks from the other two in the room; she knew they were watching her with more than normal curiosity but she wasn't going to let their looks get to her.

Taking her seat next to the woman in orange, Callie struggled to keep her composure this time around. After the night she had, she was already on edge and knew how both Arizona _and _Bailey had the ability to easily push not just one but _all _of her buttons. Callie was already so close to just losing it and this situation here was neither the time nor place for that. With Arizona being here … no, Callie needed to remain calm and collect until she could have some alone time with their client.

"You think I did it, Robbins." Bailey wasted no time, she needed both of her counselors on her side if she was going to get off from this murder charge and it was obvious that the woman was teetering on the edge at the very least. She knew very well that Callie was on board but Arizona might just become a problem; a problem Bailey couldn't afford to have.

"It doesn't matter what I think." Arizona pulled out copies of the police reports and evidence to go over with their client; the evidence was damning to say the least and they needed to get to the bottom of it. If their client_ didn't_ do it, Bailey had a lot of explaining to do. At this point, Arizona didn't think Bailey did it but the more information she collected, the more she wasn't so sure anymore.

"It does matter Robbins, if I can't trust you to trust me, then you do me no good." Bailey had secrets to keep and with those secrets that mean Callie and Arizona had their jobs cut out for them. She would not be taking the stand to defend herself so it was up to them to clear her name another way.

"It's not that I don't believe you, Miranda, but the evidence points directly at you and no one else. Let's just start at the beginning, okay?" Finally taking her seat across from her wife and client, Arizona waited on Callie to begin her line of questioning. Every single case they'd teamed up on thus far, Arizona would let Callie take the lead in interrogations, even with their own clients. She was just better at getting honest answers out of people; they saw her as the 'scarier' of the two women and were afraid of the woman with the fiery temper who looked as if she could easily break their bones without blinking an eye. Sure, Arizona could hold her own when it came to getting what they needed but it just came easier to Callie when the double-teamed sketchy clients or hostile witnesses. This was their system and it worked well … at least it worked well until today. Callie remained tight lipped as silence filled the room, it didn't take a genius to realize she wasn't going to start.

"Okay then." Arizona watched as Bailey and Callie shared a look without speaking to each other. "On the night Meredith Grey disappeared, where were you?" Arizona began when she realized her wife was going to be of little help today.

"With Grey." Bailey answered in monotones with short responses as had been the plan.

"What were you doing with Grey?" Arizona quickly caught on that this would be a long morning.

"Working on a case." Bailey refused to divulge more than she had to.

"What case?" Arizona sighed; this was _not _going to be easy and she wished her wife would pick up some of the slack.

"I can't tell you." The shorter woman in orange looked over at Callie, another look passing between the two.

"Fine, was there anyone else there with the two of you that can corroborate your story?" Witnesses were good and they _needed _some good here.

"Yes." Bailey realized her mistake of answering just a little too late.

"Who?" Arizona finally let out a breath of relief; they were going to get somewhere now.

"I can't tell you." Bailey tried backtracking, "But Grey was fine, healthy, and _very_ alive when I left her."

"I need the names, Miranda. If you have witnesses, they are crucial to this case and you know that." Arizona argued with the shorter woman.

"Find another way, Robbins." Bailey snapped, she angrier with herself than she was with Arizona.

"Miranda!" Arizona growled, she was _not_ going to be pushed around by her client.

"Find another way. I didn't kill Meredith Grey. There is no body, no blood, no hard evidence to prove I did, so do your damn job and get me off!" Bailey knew she wasn't helping but the info she had, Arizona could not have. There hadn't been a murder yet, but too many people getting too closely involved would put lives in danger and Bailey was not going to be responsible for that.

"Tell me about the argument that over one hundred people were witness to at the courthouse." Callie continued to remain silent, watching the other two women _duke it out. S_he knew that only irritated her wife, Callie should have piped up and gone toe to toe with Bailey over her lack of response but she couldn't; she was as useless here as their client as far as Arizona was concerned.

"Meredith took a case I was against from the beginning and broke protocol during it. I didn't start this firm with my blood, sweat, and tears to have her make such a rookie mistake and bring it all down around us so I let her know how much I disapproved." Callie snorted a laugh over Bailey's _kind _recollection of events winning herself wicked glares from the other two women.

"Witness accounts say you said and I quote, 'You skinny little twit, I'll kill you myself and you won't have to worry about them.'" Arizona read off of the witness sheets. "That's not good for our case with you threatening her in such a public arena."

"I didn't kill her, I've threatened you and you're still alive and kicking, Robbins." Bailey smirked; she threatened people to get her point across … it was just her _thing_. She was never serious; she'd no more hurt a fly if she could help it but people believed her and that's all she needed.

"Who is _them_?" Arizona ignored Bailey's comments that were aimed at annoying her and she knew it.

"A client's husband, he was mad Grey had uncovered his affair." This was actually the partial truth.

"What's his name? Could he have followed through with his own threats?" Arizona was relieved again, if they could shift the blame, it'd be all the reasonable doubt they needed.

"He didn't do it so it doesn't matter." Her response was curt as she once again eyed the quiet woman in the room.

"FINE!" Arizona yelled before taking a deep breath to calm down; she didn't want to push her client just yet. Since Callie refused to get another PI firm and Bailey was making this difficult, proving they needed one just for answers about their own client, Arizona . "A large sum of money was withdrawn from your bank account so where did the money go?" Arizona pulled out the banking records growing angry as the memory of her own wife's disappearance of funds flooded through her mind.

"A friend." Bailey got uncharacteristically quiet as the air in the room became thick. Arizona watched the two women once again share another look forcing her mind into overdrive.

"What friend?" Arizona figured this was the time to push for answers as it was a raw spot for her and she wasn't going to take silence from both women regarding it.

"Just a friend." Bailey knew Arizona was sore over Callie's missing funds and that her lack of answers wasn't going to help that or this situation any although there was little she could do about it.

"Did you hire someone to kill Meredith Grey?" Arizona actually hoped for a minute that this _was _indeed the case. Bailey wouldn't loan money out to just anyone and Arizona feared that her wife had been the recipient of the loan which only fueled her own anger toward her wife _and_ their client as well. If Bailey loaned Callie the money, added to her own missing funds, what the hell was Callie doing with it?

"No woman! I _did not_ kill Grey nor did I have her killed. If anything, I _would_ do it myself but I _didn't_ so do your damn job and stop treating me like a criminal." Bailey stood up garnering the attention of the prison guard outside the room. When he went to enter the room, Arizona held her hand up, letting him know she had things under control even if that was far from the case.

"Here's what you need to know … when Grey didn't go home, I was already in my own home with my son in bed with me because he had a nightmare. I was the one that reported her missing when she didn't show up at work, _not _her own husband when she didn't come home the night before. I agreed to a polygraph of which no one cared to administer one. Arizona, I can't give you the names you need; if _they_ want to come forward, I can only encourage it for _their_ own good." Bailey sent a hard look first at Callie and then returned her eyes to Arizona. "But this is _all _I can give you. You two are the best lawyers there are so do your thing; I know you've won cases with less. Now, I know Richard is footing my bill but the man owes me big so please put some money on my account in here, I'd kill for some real coffee." Bailey sat back down under the watchful eye of the guard peering through the window ready to pounce at a moment's notice.

Arizona sighed, looking toward her wife as she finally spoke up. "I'll clean up here, why don't you go put some money on her account, and I'll meet you outside." Callie realized this was Bailey's way of telling her that she wanted to talk to her _alone ... sans her wife._

Without another word, Arizona stood up, and walked out; she was past livid with both women and their damn secrets. Arizona was tired of all the secrets.

"Your marriage isn't worth this, Callie." Bailey waited until Arizona had shut the door behind her before the shorter woman dared speak.

Callie refused to make eye contact with her friend, "My marriage was over long before _this _ever became an issue."

"If that were true, you would have left her but you didn't. You stayed because it wasn't over then and it's not over now so just _tell her_. Make some of your problems disappear so you can focus on fixing the rest before it _is_ too late but she _needs_ a reason to trust you. You have to tell her."

The history the two women at the table shared was unlike any friendship they had with anyone else. They were both hardheaded, badass, _morons_ that could make it on their own. They didn't need anyone else yet they always found each other when times were tough anyway. They needed each other because they were the only one that could understand the other but neither would dare admit that; not to each other and not to anyone else.

Callie finally looked up at Bailey, tears pricking her eyes. "_I can't_." She whispered quietly, fearful that if she spoke any louder, she'd spook the tears into falling freely.

"_Screw them! _This is _your wife_, Callie, just tell her." Bailey pleaded. _This_ was already a horrible, horrible mess; she didn't want their marriage to end up a casualty as well. Nobody involved would forgive themselves for their part if that happened, especially Bailey.

"I'm already in danger if they dig too deep and find out what I know. I _can't_ put Arizona in harm's way as well." Callie loved her wife, regardless of what Arizona felt toward her and she'd do everything in her power to_ always_ protect her wife. "I'll see you soon, just be careful Miranda." Callie made it to the door before Bailey spoke again.

"It's not over, Callie; you wouldn't be protecting her if it was." The shorter woman watched Callie's hand shake on the knob as she opened the door leaving Bailey alone again.

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><p>After a less than helpful and unproductive meeting with Miranda Bailey, Arizona left her wife to her own devices so she could take care of business. First, she transferred funds in the amount of ten grand to her absent from their life, sister-in-law, with the threat that Arizona would tell Carlos if Aria accepted <em>any<em> money at all from Callie in repayment of the loan. Arizona made it _more_ than clear to her sister-in-law that this was to remain between them and to tell Callie it was her money anyway and to keep it. For Arizona, it had little to do with her wife having to payback a loan she couldn't afford for whatever reasons; Arizona needed Callie to keep what pride she had left and her owing money to her sister would destroy it completely. Arizona didn't care how mad Callie would be if she found out, the money was rightfully hers and all parties knew this. It was not her wife's fault that her parents were close-minded bigots that put their God before their daughter. Even nonreligious Arizona knew that the Bible claimed _children were a gift from God to be cherished and loved_ yet the Torres family had no qualms about throwing their precious gift from their precious God away. If homosexuality was a sin as they claimed, which everybody in their right mind knew it wasn't, Arizona was pretty sure God would be a lot angrier with the Torres family for turning their backs on the gift He gave them than He would be for two people sharing the gift of love that God had gifted them. It was people like the Torres family that ruined Arizona's faith in religion; they exploited from the Bible what was convenient for them and forgot that those who live in glass houses shouldn't throw stones.

"Ms. Robbins, it's a pleasure to be working _with _you for a change." The tall, cranky looking man waited for Arizona to take a seat before he took his own.

"Mr. Stark, let me get right to the point; as you know, Miranda Bailey's PI firm is currently … disassembled and I need you to get to the bottom of a few things for me. Quietly ... without making waves or letting _anyone_ know what you are doing or who you are working for. Everything you find out is and will be confidential. You will report to me and _only me_." Arizona knew going behind her wife's back twice in one day was only going to cause more problems but she was at wit's end with Callie.

"Ms. Robbins, discretion is my specialty and I'm insulted that you'd think anything else." Stark feigned insult.

"Get off it Stark, we _all _know you are as sleazy as they come. You are in this purely for the money. Remember, I've gone up against you and your doctored materials before but right now, you are all I've got. Everything you give me needs to be originals, no copies; I want cold, hard evidence from you and I won't accept anything else. You'll be paid well for your work and a bonus is sitting here if I don't have to question your work." Arizona hated Stark and going to him broke all her rules but he could do the job she needed without asking questions.

"What do you need, Ms. Robbins?" Stark hated the attorney just as much; time and again she'd humiliated him in court but money was money and he _was _indeed in it for the money.

"Find out where this money went, I want every dollar accounted for." She handed him bank statements from the file in front of her trying hard to overlook the other paperwork in there. "And I need you to locate one or more witnesses. All the info you'll need of the where, when, and what are on these papers. I want ATM videos, security feeds showing faces; get me names to go along with them. This _needs_ to hold up in court; eyewitness accounts of witnesses won't work, I need physical proof. Real people." Arizona gave the greedy man more paperwork, still holding tight to the last pages; her conscience was fighting hard with itself.

"Breaking into bank records is going to cost you." Stark smiled seeing dollar signs multiplying before his very eyes.

"Just do it!" Arizona's hand shook as she placed yet another statement before the man watching his face contort in momentary confusion.

"Ms. Robbins?" He raised an eyebrow in question at the paperwork now before him.

"Fi … find out where this money went as well. I'll uh, I'll take whatever you can find on this one, but I need even more confidentiality on this. Cover your tracks well, Mr. Stark." Arizona stood up before she could change her mind. She'd just become what she classified as scum in her books but it was too late, Stark saw all he needed to know and in reality, there was no turning back now.

"How should I contact you?" Stark smiled, the evil man had finally found the attorney's weakness, mentally filing it away to exploit at a later date.

"I'll check in with you … _daily_." She handed him a check from her personal account, "This should cover you for a while." Arizona turned and walked out wondering what the hell she had just gotten herself into.

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><p><strong>Disclaimer:<strong> I don't own any of the characters from Grey's Anatomy.


	5. Chapter 5

**Author's Note**: Thank you as always goes to my very lovely and awesome beta and friend-LibraryNerd, my very dear friend and writing buddy StopBreathe, and my fabulous personal artist (and awesome artist in general) 2damnpretty2die. You all are such inspirations to me, thank you.

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><p><em><strong>Circumstantial Evidence- Chapter Five reuploaded with changes 425/2013**_

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><p><em><strong>In an alternate universe, we meet attorneys Calliope Torres and Arizona Robbins. ... Word.<strong>_

"Why do we always have to meet here? It's like giving a diabetic a pound of chocolate; they can look at it all they want but can't touch it without the risk of death or a coma at the very least." Alex Karev looked around at the occupants of the small bar he'd met his friend in with visible annoyance especially when all the attorney could do was laugh at him. "Seriously, Robbins, why can't we go to Joe's like the rest of the court? It's not that I don't like lesbians but they don't like me!" He whined. How on earth was a man supposed to find himself a woman if all he ever did was hang out in lesbian bars with his lesbian friend?

"I didn't invite you here to pick up women!" Arizona snapped; she was on edge from her own actions of the past few days and after a few drinks while waiting for Alex to show up, he was the poor sap that would get the brunt of her internal anger.

"So if we're not here to pick up women, I take it things are finally looking up at home?" They'd been here numerous times over the last few months to get Arizona back into the dating scene but she'd never so much acknowledged anybody else in the bar except him and the bartender and today seemed to be no different except Alex hoped it was for completely different reasons than her inability to move on from her marriage.

"Things at home are rough; we are constantly at each other's throats and can barely stand the sight of each other." Arizona sighed; okay so she was at her wife's throat all the time and Callie was just feeding off of her but there was still no peace in the old Victorian and it was driving Arizona batty.

"She's still sleeping with Judge Sloan?" Alex knew Mark was a lot of things but his love for his best friend wasn't the same love Arizona thought it was. He was trying to help the rest of them fix the marriage and there was no way the judge was secretly sleeping Arizona's wife but convincing her of that wasn't going to happen and Alex knew this.

"I never really thought it was Mark, he was just an easy target. He's always been an easy target when we were dancing around our real problems." It's what Arizona did to avoid having to talk to her wife; she picked at stupid, ridiculous things until she made a problem out of them. Yes, Mark Sloan was a problem but he wasn't _the _problem and Arizona really did know this.

"Then if it's not Judge Sloan, who do you think it is?" Alex liked Callie and knew how devoted to her wife she was but he also knew that something was up with the other attorney; Arizona wouldn't just assume she was having an affair for no reason. Even Alex was starting to doubt Callie's insistence that she wasn't sleeping around on her wife; money was missing from her account, she would disappear at all hours of the night without an excuse to her whereabouts, and she was obviously keeping secrets. All of that screamed extramarital affair for anybody else except she wasn't just anybody else, she was the woman head over heels in love with his friend and he just didn't want to believe it.

"Nobody." Arizona sighed. "Callie's not having an affair." Arizona finally believed her wife but that didn't mean she wasn't going behind her back for something. That didn't mean that the secrets Callie was keeping hadn't been tearing them apart.

"But you said …" Alex pushed; Arizona had remained solid in her belief that her wife was cheating on her and this was a complete change of direction.

"I know what I said but I was wrong, okay?" Arizona snapped, her guilt was starting to eat her alive; she just wished Alex would drop the discussion about her wife and shut the hell up using the bottle of beer in his hand.

"Then what's with her disappearing act and all the secrets?" If Arizona was dropping the affair idea, she had to know something and Alex needed to know what she knew. He had an obligation to the Chief Judge to report back everything he could and this was good, very good.

"I don't know Alex but I'm going to get to the bottom of it." Arizona finished her forth beer since entering the bar. After what she'd done, she was trying to drown her guilty conscience.

"How? She won't talk to you and for good reason with the way you went after her in the courtroom and then holding cell. I can only imagine how you two fight at home without an audience to hold you back, so how?" Alex tried hard not to smile at the turn of events; if Arizona cared enough to find out, she cared enough about her wife, and they still had a fighting chance. Not that Alex ever believed they didn't; he knew just how much they loved each other; they just sucked at communicating with each other and that was still fixable.

"What did you do Arizona?" Alex eyed his friend suspiciously when she refused to make eye contact; she looked guilty.

"Hired Stark." She whispered as shame made itself known across her face. She couldn't believe she was going down this path but she felt as if she had little choice.

"That bumblefuck? You're just asking for this to blow up in your face." Alex looked on at his friend with disappointment; he understood her actions but did not approve of them one bit.

"It already has blown up in my face, Alex." Arizona shook her head to rid herself of any lingering tears that her overworked emotions kept bringing to the surface. "I'm getting divorced from my wife, a good friend of mind is basically on death row unless I can figure something out; I've already alienated Callie so far away she can't be in the same room as me. It's so bad that she leaves if I come in. I mean she drops whatever she's doing and just leaves; she can't even look me in the eyes anymore. She … she emptied the nursery. She packed it all up, Alex. And now she's moving back to Miami when this is all done. How much worse can it get?"

"_You _filed for divorce, Arizona." Alex didn't dance around things nor did he feel it best to sugarcoat the cold hard facts. Arizona was the one that took the final steps to end her marriage and even though she was having second thoughts, he wasn't going to let her get away with putting the blame on her wife; at least not all of the blame.

"I know, I was wrong, okay?" Arizona sighed looking into her empty beer glass and wishing it had the answers she was looking for. "I only saw my wife pulling away, keeping secrets-tons of secrets. I didn't realize I was pushing her away, that I had already pushed her away. I … I thought I was innocent. I was trying to get us ready for our future; I didn't see it as neglecting her … us. I love her so much, I just wanted to give her everything, all her dreams, and now I'm the one crushing them." It was no use holding back the tears anymore because they weren't listening anyway. Grabbing the cocktail napkin under her mug, Arizona recklessly wiped at her wet eyes. Alex wasn't going to give her pity when she'd brought this on herself; he'd hold her hand and let her cry but there'd be no pity but she also didn't need it. Arizona didn't do pity, she couldn't afford to do pity because it took precious time away from trying to figure out how to right things.

"Why now? Why after all this time is it so important to fix things with Callie? You've been a monster of a wife, what changed, Arizona?" In the divorce, Alex always chose Arizona, there was never a question of it but he wasn't going to let her off the hook for her actions just because he was a devoted friend.

"There's brash and emotionally charged Callie and then there's calm and collected Callie; she cleaned out our nursery Alex and not on some temper tantrum or to hurt me but because she's thought it through. She's going home because she thought it through. She realizes that her parents can't hurt her as much as I have so she's willing to put up with it. I did something very wrong if she's at that point and feels that way. I love my wife, I just hate who we've both become but it doesn't have to be this way, I just don't know what to do." If Arizona couldn't explain it to Alex and she hadn't alienated him as she had her wife, how in God's name would she be able to talk to Callie who didn't have it in her to weed through the babble to get to the point?

"Fix it then Arizona, you still have time." Of course Alex knew time was on their side, at the moment, because Richard Webber and Mark Sloan had kept both him and Samantha in the loop but the closer the women got to trial, the less time they would have to work on them while still trying to save Miranda Bailey's life.

"She's moving back to Miami." Arizona didn't see that as having time to figure out where they'd both gone wrong, have them both admit to it, and convince her wife that they should fix it.

"She's not moving yet and Bailey is still behind bars so you have time!" The woman before him was an enigma; she wanted her wife but she was fighting it at the same time. What the hell was going through her thick skull?

"How?" Arizona snapped; she was a fucking brilliant lawyer but she had no clue what steps to take to fix it, especially after she just hired Stark to snoop into her wife's financial transactions.

"If you need me to spell it out for you, here. Put a little faith in her again. Trust her. Maybe she's keeping these secrets for good reason so trust her to know what she's doing. You have never ever given her room to fail but when you do that, you also take away her chance to really succeed too." Alex had been an outsider in their relationship long enough to recognize both their faults and if Arizona needed somebody to point hers out, he was probably the best and safest bet.

"What is a good enough reason in your book for your wife to be keeping secrets from you?" She snapped. Biting Alex's head off wasn't nice or fair but he'd take it because of their history; he'd take it so she didn't do it to her wife when she got home. Alex wanted it out of her system so he'd take it.

Alex smiled his goofy grin, "Maybe she's been sworn to secrecy by the President of the United States?"

Arizona finally laughed, letting her anger dissipate with the reverberating sound. "Although I die a little inside to admit this about my own wife but she's a republican so I doubt that."

Shrugging, Alex was just glad to see a smile grace his friend's face, it had been too long. "You don't know her story, Arizona, so ask her to tell it and if she can't, trust her anyway. All you've been doing is slinging around accusations and beating each other down; how about you quit with acting like lawyers with each other and start acting like wives! No matter how you look at it, your marriage is on death row."

"She's not going to listen to me long enough for me to even ask." Arizona sighed.

"Do you really still love her?" He didn't doubt his friend just breaking her down.

Nodding because that's all she could do as the tears began falling again, Arizona squeezed the hand that reached for her own.

"Then give her a reason to listen to you. You aren't dumb, you can figure this out but I'm serious, stop treating her like a defendant, she's your wife." Alex sat back in his chair as Arizona stared out into the nothingness, collecting her thoughts. He resigned himself to sitting, watching two very hot women grinding very sexually against one another on the dance floor and realizing that watching was all he was going to get until his friend stopped dragging him to lesbian bars to avoid the stares and whispers of the crowds at the courthouse stomping ground of Joe's.

* * *

><p>Another long day bled into another long night and the Chief Judge was far from happy he was stuck reading over his cases for the next day when he could be home with his wife. No, things weren't great with Kristin but it was better than being stuck in an empty courthouse while she was at home stewing over their predicament as she called it. Richard's dedication to Miranda Bailey was causing problems on the home front; she believed he was so zealous about saving his friend that he had to be having an affair with her. It was far from the case; Bailey was just a friend, a very good friend and he wasn't going to let her rot in jail for something he was certain she didn't do. Nobody else was going to help until what he saw in his eyes as being too late, he had to do something.<p>

"Something's not right." Mark walked into the judge's chambers without a second thought.

"For starters, you are entering my chambers unannounced." Richard grumbled at the other judge without bothering to look up from the files in front of him.

"Come on Richard, how long have we been friends?" Mark looked insulted by the lack of warmth in his arrival.

"Since I put your sorry ass in juvie to straighten you out." The thought of the other judge's less than stellar past brought a smile to the Chief's face.

"Exactly! Don't you think we're a little past the pleasantries?" Still insulted by his obvious annoyance to the other man, Mark pouted.

"In my courthouse, I am still your boss and you will _always _knock, Sloan." Webber knew his foul mood was not the other man's fault but he needed to take it out on somebody or risk fighting with his wife _again_ when he did arrive home later.

"Yes Chief." Richard looked up just in time to see the look of a scolded dog pass on Mark's face.

"What's not right?" The older man eased up a little; something was obviously bothering his friend and that was what Mark was here as, a friend.

"I saw Callie the other day …" Mark saw Richard nod toward the chairs before his desk but the he instead found comfort in leaning against the wall. He felt as if he was tattling on his best friend but this wasn't something they could just ignore.

"You and Callie used to be connected at the hip, this doesn't surprise me." Webber missed the discomfort in his colleague's voice, taking it as much of nothing.

"She didn't see me. She was … she was having a fight with this guy. An attorney or bureaucrat or something. I don't know, some suit. She was crying and pushing him off her. By the time I could cross the street to find out what was going on, they were gone." The whole scene had left Mark unsettled; watching Callie have to literally push another man off of her had his blood boiling and the fact that he had no clue what was going on only upset him even more.

"Are you sure it was Callie?" Mark had Richard's attention; this could put a wrench into his plans.

"You don't miss a five-foot-eight brunette; it was Callie."

"Could you tell what the fight was over?" Richard feared worst-case scenario here.

"No but …" Mark began pacing the expanse of the other judge's chambers, it was clear he was very upset.

"But what Mark?" Webber pushed his friend knowing it was breaking his friend's heart to even think what he was thinking.

"What if she _is _having an affair? Robbins was a bitch to live with lately but not even she deserves that." Mark sighed; Callie was so unhappy with her wife but you just didn't cheat on your wife. Mark knew from personal experience it got you nowhere but heartache and grief.

"Are you _sure _of what you saw?" The older man rubbed the heels of his hands over his eyes; this might be what causes them to pull the plug on their plan. He'd get Miranda out of jail and give the two the divorce they both obviously wanted so bad before any more damage could be done.

"He had his hand holding her arm. Callie and I have gone at each other but never would I dare to put a hand on her like that. It was … intimate Richard." Mark sighed. "The kind of hold so your lover doesn't walk away from you."

"Why are you telling me this?" Richard snapped; he had enough on his plate to worry about and now he had to add even more stress about his plan backfiring. Between work, his wife, Bailey and the two women he saw as his own daughters, Richard was at wit's end.

"Because _this _was all your idea; to put them together and remind them of what they were. Maybe we should have left things alone!" Mark growled back. He knew he was only being yelled at because Richard was worried but Mark was just as much to blame here if things didn't go the way they wanted. Mark was losing just as much as his boss, his friend, and he was just as upset.

"Even if Callie _had_ an affair, we don't know if it was before or after they broke up and divorce papers were filed. We can't assume anything with those two. Callie's _your_ best friend, talk to her." Richard wasn't going to back down until he had solid proof and Mark now needed to find out what the hell was going on.

"She doesn't talk to me anymore." Mark finally stopped pacing to take the chair in front of the other judge. His friendship with Callie had become so strained over the past six or so months and confronting her about what he saw could possibly make it worse. That wasn't something he was willing to risk when Callie needed him; he was all she had left.

"She's going to need you come next week so you need to start talking." It sounded more like an order than friendly advice coming from the other man and when Mark just looked on confused, he continued. "The nominations for sitting judges comes out."

"Callie doesn't want that shit; she wants to be in front of the bench, not behind it, Richard. She can do more good fighting and making a difference, why would that affect her?" Mark was still confused; Callie never wanted to be a judge, that was Arizona's territory.

"Because her wife's on that list." Richard knew what this meant for them.

"Callie hasn't said anything." Even that would get him a phone call at the very least; no matter how bad things had gotten between them, Callie would have been very proud of her wife.

"I don't think she knows; they wouldn't be fighting over a firm that Callie would ultimately get if Arizona left to take the bench. Robbins didn't tell her, Mark." Richard knew when he got the papers for their divorce that Arizona had neglected to tell her wife that there was a good chance she'd be on the other side of the courtroom soon enough and not be able to keep the firm. That's what began to set his mind in motion to fix them. Arizona was mad enough at her wife to take the firm and then close it down than let her keep it and that meant there was something still there. She wanted to hurt her wife, to make her feel what she was feeling because he knew she still loved Callie or she'd have just walked away.

Mark sighed, things just got a whole lot worse for them both, Richard was right. "That explains why Robbins has been so obsessive in her work but why didn't she just tell Callie? Her wife would have been happy for her; Callie supported everything Arizona did."

"I don't know but you know more secrets means more fighting and those two are like cornered badgers when it comes to each other." Richard couldn't help but chuckle; cornered badgers or five year olds being told to share their toys. Either way, they were a handful, a very large handful.

"Shit!" Mark sighed a laugh when the door behind him knocked.

"Your honor?" Cristina peeped her head in the Chief Judge's chambers, relieved to see Mark in there since he hadn't been in his own chambers.

"Yes Yang?" Webber cringed, there wasn't much more he could take tonight, really!

"It's Callie …"

* * *

><p>"Uh … what are you doing?" Callie had holed herself up in her bedroom while working on the Tyler case when the smell of food began to cloud her sense. After their meeting with Bailey, Arizona took off to do, Lord knows what, and Callie took the break in their constant fighting to put one hundred percent effort into her lone case and probably the last she'd have in <em>their <em>firm.

"Making dinner. I figured we could talk." Arizona motioned toward the set table for her wife to join her.

"I'm kinda Bailey-ed out Arizona. Can this wait until morning? I need to get back to work on Mrs. Tyler's case." Callie had enjoyed the peace and quiet her afternoon without Arizona afforded her and she didn't want to end the marginally good day in tears once again if they _talked,_ as her wife seemed to be interested in doing.

"Not about Bailey, I need a break from her as well. How about you stay and we eat and talk and I'll help you on the Tyler matter after dinner?" Arizona watched confusion pass over her wife's face. "I mean, if you want my help." She was quick to add so Callie didn't think she was going to try to take over as she so often did in the past, usually without her wife's knowledge.

Skepticism still clear across her face, Callie stared her wife down trying to read her for any signs of … anything. "Why are you being nice to me?" Callie had a right to be suspicious but it still stung nonetheless.

"I'm trying to call a truce here, Calliope." Arizona sighed. "Fighting with you is too draining." Which was the partial truth but she knew as soon as the words fell from her mouth that her wife would not understand what she'd meant by it; Callie would take it exactly how it sounded and it didn't sound good.

"So, I can add exhausting to the long list of things I am to you?" The woman was always on defense mode when it came to her wife and never took the time to read in between the lines that often needed to be read. They spoke before they thought; they snapped before they listened.

"No! That's _not _what I meant. I just … I'm sorry I've been so difficult to deal with recently." Arizona paused, trying not to snap at her wife's scoff. "Fine, for a while then, okay? I know I've been unbearable but you aren't easy to live with either!" It was useless to think she could hold in her anger as she snapped at her wife in her own annoyances.

"Old habits die hard, huh Arizona? Still can't give an apology without shifting the blame at the same time?" Callie growled; it's how it had always been, an apology and an accusation. She was tired of the games and tired of being angry all the time.

"Damn it, Calliope. Sit. Eat. I'm tired of eating my own foot so let me try this again." Arizona sighed dejectedly even as her wife took the seat across from her. This is not how she meant to start the evening and now she didn't see much luck in being able to save the rest of it now that she'd put her wife back on edge.

They made awkward eye contact, polite conversation that revolved around the passing of food, and little else as the minutes drug on during the meal. They'd spent so much time arguing with each other or not talking at all that the ability for normal dinner conversation was long forgotten. It was obvious they both wanted to consume their meal and head back to their opposite corners of the house as fast as they could.

"I made you an appointment about your ulcer." Arizona finally broke the uncomfortable silence even if it would most likely bring on more arguing.

"I don't need to see a doctor, I hate doctors." Callie whined; she wasn't going to fight, she was going to do what she did best and ignore the situation.

"And I hate seeing blood in the sink when I go to clean my wife's bathroom. You're going to put yourself in the hospital so let's kill it now, okay? I'll be with you." Too many times since Callie's return, Arizona had found too much blood from Callie's attacks and she was done; her wife _needed _to see a doctor so she once again went behind her back.

Callie nodded in defeat, she knew she was sick and she knew it was only getting worse but the idea of being poked and prodded by a complete stranger with a stethoscope scared her. It terrified her but she could also see how terrified her own wife was and realized if she could garner such a reaction from Arizona, maybe she was right.

"I know you're not having an affair, Callie." One battle was won and Arizona felt the need to clear the air … at least part of it. If Callie could bend, she could as well.

The statement had Callie's hand freezing halfway to her mouth, the only sound that could be heard was the fork hitting her plate.

"But I need to know things. Please." Arizona begged, she had Callie's attention and she needed to keep it even if that meant showing her own weakness.

"But you said … and the divorce papers and …"

"Where did all the money in your account go?" Arizona off cut her wife before she could get too upset; it wasn't the time for explanations about why they were on the road to divorce. Right now, she needed her answers so maybe she could better understand her wife so that Callie might be able to better understand her when the time came for those much-needed explanations.

"How did you even find out about that?" Callie had wondered for months how Arizona had found out that she had drained every last cent from her bank account but things became so hostile so fast between them that she never had a chance to ask.

"I love you Callie, but you suck when it comes to balancing your checkbook … I've always kept you in the black if I could." If she expected honesty from her wife, Arizona knew she had to bend a little in return even if it meant angering Callie in the end.

"You … you went through my bank statement …" It was less of an accusation and more of a comprehension for her. It made sense, a lot of sense.

"I didn't do it to be nosy, Callie. I just … money is an issue for you. I get that, I do, but I hate that it has to be. You're my wife; I'm allowed to take care of you." Somewhere along the lines, they both forgot that it took a life _together_ to make a marriage; they'd gotten so wrapped up in their own lives, they forgot that they were a _they_.

"I was your wife, Arizona. _Was_ your wife." Callie pushed back from the table, her chair hitting the floor behind her. "But you destroyed that title when you had me served with divorce papers. You didn't even have the nerve to tell me yourself." She was fuming mad that Arizona kept referring to her wife in the present; there was no marriage anymore and they'd both made sure of that. "You don't deserve to know, Arizona." She snapped and felt immediately guilty that her web of lies kept growing. Yes, Arizona had no rights to Callie's whereabouts anymore and that included the missing money but that's not why she wasn't telling her wife. "I can't tell you, okay? _I can't_." She whispered in defeat.

"Why?" Arizona yelled from the table; the answer wasn't good enough. "Who are you protecting?"

"YOU! I'm protecting _you_." Tears broke through her resolve to remain stoic as Callie turned to flee for the sanctuary of her room but not before Arizona caught the look of honest distress in her wife's eyes and knew their conversation was again, truly over for the night.

* * *

><p>"<em>I can't do this anymore. I don't want to keep your secrets. I don't want to sneak around. I don't want to be in danger. I don't want to keep lying to my wife."<em>

She was only going to check on her wife, as she felt guilty for upsetting her over dinner when she clearly heard the distress coming from her wife's voice through the door to her room. Arizona didn't mean to eavesdrop but Callie sounded so upset and it had her frozen outside her wife's bedroom.

"_No, you aren't hearing me. I'm done. I shouldn't have gotten involved with you in the first place, I was only helping out a friend and now … all this … no, no … I could have saved my marriage but it's too late for that. It's all too late."_

Arizona had no idea of whom her wife was talking to on the other end of the phone but the tears in her voice didn't go unnoticed.

"_No, I'm not going into your program and I told you that from the beginning. I want my life back."_

The mix of emotions coming from the whispered voice of Callie was unsettling; whomever she had on the phone wasn't listening to her. Arizona recognized the fear and pain in her wife's voice and just couldn't walk away.

"_NO! What part of it's too late do you not understand? I … no, she'd never agree to that now, not after all the lies and secrets."_

A long pause followed the confusing one-ended conversation and Arizona could hear the muffled tears through the hollowed wood door. She was seconds away from busting into the room herself and telling the person on the other end of the phone just what they could do with themselves and it had nothing to do with lollipops and candy canes.

"_I'm done. I won't blow it for you but count me out. I don't need your … anymore; I won't check in with you, I'm done. Just leave me alone, I don't know how many more ways to tell you this."_

Arizona stood, unsure of what to make of what she'd overheard or what to do about it until the crying in the other room was soon drowned out by harsh vomiting sounds. Opening up the door without an invitation was dangerous but Callie sounded terrible and she wasn't walking away just because her wife would put up a fight and probably sling cruel words around for her intrusion. Walking over to her wife's side of the bed, Arizona found her wife violently throwing up more than just a little blood into the waste bin in her lap as tears of pain streamed down her face.

"It looks like it's going to be the hospital after all for you." Arizona gently rubbed her wife's back as she pulled out the phone to dial 911. This wasn't just a little hole anymore and there'd be no arguing about it.

* * *

><p><strong>Disclaimer:<strong> I don't own any of the characters from Grey's Anatomy.


	6. Chapter 6

**Author's Note**: Thank you as always goes to my very lovely and awesome beta and friend-LibraryNerd, my very dear friend and writing buddy StopBreathe, and my fabulous personal artist (and awesome artist in general) 2damnpretty2die. You all are such inspirations to me, thank you.

* * *

><p><em><strong>Circumstantial Evidence- Chapter Six reuploaded with changes 425/2013**_

* * *

><p><em><strong>In an alternate universe, we meet attorneys Calliope Torres and Arizona Robbins. ... Word.<strong>_

"Where's your wife?" Mark entered through the curtain of Callie's emergency accommodations without announcing himself; it was his _thing. _If they didn't know he was coming, they couldn't stop him.

The pain-relieving drugs had out done their job with taking the pain away but it also took away Callie's ability to filter any and all of her thoughts. Her mind was one big roller coaster and she had no problem letting those thoughts abandon the ride.

"My wife is hot." A goofy grin spread over Callie's stoned face.

"I'm not commenting on that. We might be at a hospital, but I'd rather them not have to surgically reattach anything today." Mark couldn't help but also grin at Callie's drugged giggles. "I can see they didn't spare the good stuff on you. So again, where's your wife?"

"Arizona gives the _good_ stuff," Callie purred sexually; she was obviously unaware of her surroundings or to whom she was talking because Arizona had made their sex life off limits to Mark's knowledge years ago. "But right now, she's giving the hospital my insurance information. Why? You wanna find yourself a hot, young nurse and borrow my bed? 'Cause I don't think Arizona would like that very much if she came back to find you here instead of me."

"Are you cheating on your wife?" Mark knew he had limited time because Arizona would be back soon and thought it best to get straight to the point.

"NO!" The look of horror and shock on his best friend's face said all he needed to know. After having kept so many secrets from Mark lately, her words were pretty empty but her facial expressions screamed the truth behind them.

"This is all my fault. Everyone thinks I cheated on her. Everyone thinks I don't love her. It's nothing like that Mark. I'm...I'm just protecting her. I _have _to protect her." Callie started to sob into her hands. "I didn't think it would blow up in my face like this. I was just doing a favor. Everything's always a mess. Why is everything always a mess?" To Mark, Callie stopped making sense as he figured the drugs had taken complete control over her rational thought process. He figured she was speaking every thought that came to mind in a jumble of words. "I'm always covering for her. Always."

As Callie gave up trying to stop the tears, her wife returned moments later only to find her sobbing hysterically while pushing off the comforting advances of Mark Sloan. Callie's heart monitor was going crazy and she needed to calm down before she started vomiting blood again. Arizona was beyond furious.

"What did you do to her, Mark?" She growled, shoving him aside and away from her wife before taking up his spot. Unlike Mark's touch, Callie welcomed her wife's, leaning into the hand on her cheek for comfort.

"Callie, breathe." Arizona wiped the tears from her wife's cheeks with one hand while the other one was held in a weak vice-like grip by Callie's own unsteady hand. Everything was obviously too much for her and whatever Mark said, add to that the powerful, mind altering drugs, and Callie's mental state had broken.

"Just get out, Mark." Arizona heard him trying to explain the situation at hand to her but her focus was solely on the heartbreaking whimpers escaping between Callie's deep breaths.

Had he not been encouraged by both Arizona's compassion for the woman she claimed to no longer love and Callie's welcoming response to her wife's touch, Mark would have fought harder to clear his name in Arizona's book. However, the two women working together as wives was all he needed to leave the room a happy man even if his best friend was in the hospital and her wife wanted him dead again.

"I'm so sorry, Arizona." Callie hiccupped through another broken sob. The tears had slowed down, but still continued to fall at an alarming rate.

"It's okay, Callie. You just need to calm down." Arizona stroked her wet cheeks hoping to comfort her to sleep.

"I didn't mean to break us. I didn't want to lose you." Although Arizona's touch was comforting, it did little to calm the storm raging deep within. Between her fear of hospitals, Mark's accusations, and the mess of her marriage, Callie was inconsolable.

"Callie …" Arizona wasn't sure this was the time or place to be having this conversation even if it was the first time her wife had both admitted any fault and had any opinion on their demise. Before Arizona had a chance to weigh the pros and cons of opening their wounds in such a public place, Callie's doctor returned to the cramped ER room.

"Ms. Torres, this is Lydia. She's going to begin prepping you." He pulled open Callie's chart, jotting down information from the screens all around them.

"Prepping her?" Arizona looked confused. She wasn't gone that long and she couldn't have missed his visit after Callie returned from her CT Scan.

"My med student hasn't stopped by?" His look of confusion mirrored that of Arizona's.

"No." Arizona snapped. Had his med student stopped by, she wouldn't be lost as to why they were about to prep her wife for what she could only assume was surgery.

"Well, let me bring you up to speed then. It seems your wife waited a few days too long to get that nasty hole in her stomach checked out and it's done a number eating its way through her stomach wall. Usually, if caught early enough, a simple endoscopy would have been sufficient, but as it stands with the blood loss and possible infection from gastric fluids leaking, we have to open her up with major abdominal surgery. Recovery is longer, painful, and more involved, but with maintaining the right diet, and levels of stress, we won't have to go back in again. She'll be kept here for a few days for monitoring and then we'll send her home. Aftercare will be explained in her room, but it's really all just routine." He looked on at both women, now stark white from the news he had just given them.

"How do you call cutting into my stomach routine?" Callie barked, trying to sit up, but the return of the searing pains in her stomach were not helping matters. "No. No. I just want to go home. Nobody is cutting me open." Her eyes grew in horror as she realized the implications of what he was saying before she went crazy pulling wires off her body in a lame attempt to flee.

"Callie, calm down." Arizona quickly returned to her side as both her and Lydia tried to restrain the patient before she could pull out her IV or cause more damage.

"Arizona, don't make me get surgery. Please. Please, Arizona." Callie was once again sobbing hysterically.

"Callie, you'll be asleep the whole time and when you wake up, you'll feel better." Arizona knew it was hopeless; Callie was terrified of doctors and it only drastically increased with the idea of surgery. "Look at me, Calliope." Arizona tried to keep her attention as she watched the nurse administer something into her wife's IV. "I'll be here when you wake up, honey." She tucked the stray hairs that had fallen out of her ponytail during the struggle behind Callie's ear.

Tears were streaming down her face, but her body and mind quickly became limp as the drugs began coursing their way through her system. "You promise?" Her words became slurred as her eyelids started to droop.

Nodding enthusiastically, Arizona sighed with relief as her wife began falling into a drugged sleep. "I promise." She whispered, leaning down to kiss Callie's tear streaked face.

"I love you," were the last words Callie murmured before she was out cold.

Turning again to face the doctor, Arizona held tight to her wife's limp hand. "I'm sorry. She has a fear of hospitals." She shrugged, knowing it wasn't the first time he'd witnessed such behavior.

"No problem, Ms. Robbins."

"Wait, how do you know who I am?" Arizona stood once again confused; most people didn't assume two women were married. Often times they were mistaken for sisters over wives.

"Your wife was my wife's lawyer in our divorce. I did my research on her counsel, you know, to see who I was going up against." He explained like it wasn't a big deal.

It _was _a big deal. "Should you be doing the surgery then? Isn't that a conflict of interest?" Arizona snapped; she wasn't about to let her wife go under the knife of a bitter divorcé.

"Usually, yes, but your wife saved my life and I'll do everything in my power to save hers in there." When he realized his answer wasn't good enough for the attorney staring him down, he continued. "My wife was trying to keep my kids from me and suck me dry in the process. Without my kids, I had no reason to live. They weren't mine biologically, but I was all they'd ever known and as you know, in a courtroom, that means nothing. Your wife convinced mine to give up her vendetta and work with me. We now share joint custody and I never have to worry about losing them again. She reminded my ex to remember we loved each other once and to let the pain of failure go. I can't say we're friends, but we're on our way to being something like it. Although the bad times broke us, we still had a lot of good times, and just because we couldn't make it work, that didn't mean we should forget them. Ms. Torres helped her get to that point. Had your wife been around a few months before, we might have saved our marriage with her advice, but as it stands, she did save our relationship. So yes, normally another surgeon should be on the case, but I owe your wife for my children and I plan to repay her." The doctor looked back at his patient, scribbling something in her paperwork, and slammed shut the folder with a snap. "Once Lydia preps her, we'll have someone escort you to the surgical waiting area and I'll come see you when we're done." He left on a nod, leaving a stunned silent Arizona shaking from an overload of emotions. Her wife's words rang true, yet neither of them had been able to follow through on them herself. They always did their best to remind their clients that their love meant something once and not to let it die in vain, but they had seemed to have forgotten their own advice.

* * *

><p>"I got here as quickly as I could. How is she?" Arizona didn't bother to look up at the intruder once she heard her best friend's voice. Teddy took the seat next to a pale and motionless woman.<p>

"You're the other woman, aren't you?" She continued staring at the scuff marks on the floor, unable to meet the other woman in the eyes.

"What?" Teddy choked.

"You're the other woman." Arizona repeated. "The mistress." It wasn't a question as she finally looked up to see shame color Teddy's cheeks.

"Yes."

"Stop. Just stop it, Teddy. You don't know how it feels to be the one whose spouse is keeping secrets from you. It's like a knife constantly twisting in your heart. You...I don't know how you can come back from that, so stop it before it's too late for Owen and Cristina." The conversation she'd overheard before the 911 call had replayed over and over again in Arizona's mind while her wife was on the operating table. True, Arizona had played a large role in their failed marriage, but Callie's secrets had ultimately pushed her over the edge and now she was seriously contemplating if it _was _too late for them. She didn't want it to be too late, but that's all she had been able to conclude in the past few hours. This mess was no longer consumed by just Callie's secrets as Arizona had plenty of her own now.

"Is _this _why you've been avoiding me?" Teddy hadn't seen or heard much from her best friend in months; she knew between work and the divorce that Arizona had a lot on her plate but even then it was odd to not receive a random email from her friend.

"I know how Cristina feels. The suspicions alone are enough to eat you alive. I couldn't look at you and not hate you for her." Arizona admitted solemnly.

"I'm sorry, Arizona." And she was. She never meant to let things spiral this far out of control and never meant to alienate her best friend over it.

"Just stop, if not for Cristina and Owen, for me. You deserve better and you are better than that, Teddy." Arizona felt sick to her stomach; Callie was better than that and she never gave her wife the benefit of the doubt. Callie deserved better than that.

"Okay. You're right. I'll stop." Teddy looked over at Arizona, finally catching her eye. "I will. I promise."

Teddy could tell Arizona was mulling over her own mistakes. Not that she ever thought Callie was cheating on her best friend, but she always supported Arizona nonetheless and now it was obvious Arizona didn't believe her own accusations either. Needing to take her friend's mind off of the stress of everything, Teddy broke the silence.

"Congratulations are in order, I hear."

"What?" Arizona's train of thought was broken by the excitement in Teddy's voice.

"Sitting judge nomination. That's pretty great!" Teddy watched confusion pass over the blue eyes staring back at her.

"How do you know that? Those ballots are a secret until next week," Arizona sighed. She figured if Teddy knew, it was only a matter of time before her wife did.

"I'm _on _the committee, but why didn't _you _tell me?" This secret had nothing to do with Callie's secret, because she knew Arizona had been approached almost a year prior.

"Hell, I didn't even tell Callie. It was supposed to be a surprise." Arizona shook her head. "I didn't even tell Callie..."

"That explains a lot." Like why Arizona was fighting for a firm that she never had any intention of keeping.

"To be honest, I'd mostly forgotten about it. I mean, it crossed my mind, but I had so much else going on that I...I just didn't put much stock into it anymore. This was my dream for _us_. I'd take the bench and bring home a steady income and Callie could keep the firm going and do what she loves doing, helping less fortunate people out. We could then start our family. I don't want this job if...if I don't have us. I worked so hard to get here so we could start _our _future. I needed the stability and now...now it just doesn't matter." Arizona blinked back the tears. She had worked so hard to get everything in order and now it just didn't matter.

"Had you just told her why you were working so hard she would have understood. There are things that aren't supposed to be a surprise...illnesses, promotions that affect _everyone _involved...and divorce." Teddy pointed out her friend's faults. That's the friendship they had; honesty wouldn't ruin them because they expected the other never to hold back. They expected each other to keep them accountable.

"God, both of our secrets destroyed us..." She had worked so hard tying up loose ends, building the firm, getting ready for this, and the whole time she was pushing Callie away because of it. Teddy was right. If she had just been honest, maybe her wife wouldn't think she didn't want her.

"Destroyed?" Teddy shook her head. "You're sitting in a hospital on the verge of a meltdown because Callie is in surgery. You're scared. That to me screams anything _but _destroyed, Arizona."

Before Arizona could answer or argue, the nurse who had prepped her wife appeared from around the corner. "Ms. Robbins, your wife is in recovery and we'll be taking her up to her room shortly. Dr. Duillier thought it would be best if you met them up there so she wasn't so upset when she woke up. He'll be up after he takes care of a few things, once she's a little more awake." Lydia smiled at the panicky looking woman.

"Go. I'll see you later." Teddy knew it was best to give the women some time alone with Callie coming out of anesthesia to find herself in a hospital room, probably in loads of pain.

"You really think we have a chance?" Arizona turned around to her best friend as the elevator doors opened. She needed somebody to believe in her, in them.

"Kiss your wife hello for me and let her know she's in my prayers. You both are." Teddy smiled warmly and waited until her best friend stepped on the elevator before she took her own leave.

* * *

><p>"Did they get the alien out?" It took all of Callie's strength to fight through the fog of the drugs to wake up. The first few minutes all she could do was struggle to focus on her wife sitting in the chair next to her, holding tight onto her hand for dear life.<p>

"Alien?" Callie's question brought Arizona out of her stupor.

"Yeah. I imagine this is how Sigourney Weaver felt in Aliens when the damn thing popped out of her." Callie groaned in pain when she laughed at her own joke.

"You in pain?" Arizona reached for the call button to notify the nurse.

"Yes, but I don't want drugs. Not yet." Callie tried to turn toward her wife, but was quickly informed she'd be on her back for the foreseeable future as her stomach screamed at her for daring to move.

"Callie, you just got out of major surgery. Take your drugs." Arizona scolded. She didn't want to see Callie in any more pain.

"I don't want to take them yet." Callie whined. "They make me loopy and I wanted to talk to you." Callie watched the trepidation in her wife's eyes, but relaxed when Arizona nodded, indicating for her to continue.

"I'm sorry for blowing up at you at dinner. I know you were extending an olive branch and I was being an ass." Callie spoke through gritted teeth as she struggled to sit up. She wasn't having this conversation lying down or at least not flat on her back.

"Easy Callie. Easy." Arizona knew arguing with Callie was useless and did her best to help her wife sit up without tearing any stitches. "I did bombard you with a lot and we both have been a little defensive with each other. I get it." Arizona added another pillow behind her wife's back to get her as comfortable as she could.

"A little?" Callie cracked a real smile for the first time in a long time.

"Okay, a lot." Arizona couldn't help but smile as well, even pale from pain, her wife's smile gave the woman a healthy glow.

"I don't want to fight with you anymore." The last thing Callie thought about before going under was that if she didn't make it, all Arizona would have to remember her was their constant fighting and she swore to herself that she'd change things when she got out. She wasn't going to take part in soiling what had been the greatest love affair of her life, even if it ended so poorly.

"I know. I don't either." Arizona couldn't help but think about the conversation she'd had with the doctor before Callie's surgery. They had loved each other with everything they had and just because they couldn't make it didn't mean they should forget what they had together. She didn't hate her wife and she didn't want Callie thinking she did.

"I gave the money to a friend. This friend got into some trouble, big trouble." Arizona deserved the truth, as much as Callie could tell her, anyway. She didn't want her wife thinking all the horrible things she had been any longer. She wanted give Arizona a little peace of mind.

"Who did you give the money to?" It shouldn't have surprised her any. Callie was a bleeding heart, but had she just talked to Arizona, they could have been in it together.

"I can't tell you any more than that, Arizona." Callie wanted to, but there was too much at stake.

"This friend, are they still in trouble?" Arizona started putting two and two together and wondered why it had taken her this long. She was an intelligent woman, but never saw the big picture where Callie was concerned.

Feeling nauseated and dizzy, Callie nodded her response. Oh yeah, they were still in a lot of trouble.

Swallowing hard, Arizona hoped two and two made five here and not the four she had gotten. "Are you in trouble, Calliope?"

Tears of more than physical pain pooled in the brown eyes, staring up at her wife as she nodded once again.

"Is this why you've been trying to protect me?" Arizona's own tears skipped the pooling process and began cascading down her cheeks. She didn't understand why her wife just didn't ask her for help. She didn't understand how she could ever doubt Callie loved her.

"Oh, Calliope." The weight of the world became too much to bear and Arizona broke as she watched her wife nod yet again. They were both such stubborn and foolish women.

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><p><strong>Disclaimer:<strong> I don't own any of the characters from Grey's Anatomy.


	7. Chapter 7

**Author's Note**: Thank you as always goes to my very lovely and awesome beta and friend-LibraryNerd, my very dear friend and writing buddy StopBreathe, and my fabulous personal artist (and awesome artist in general) 2damnpretty2die. You all are such inspirations to me, thank you.

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><p><em><strong>Circumstantial Evidence- Chapter Seven reuploaded with changes 425/2013**_

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><p><em><strong>In an alternate universe, we meet attorneys Calliope Torres and Arizona Robbins. ... Word.<strong>_

Cristina walked into the hospital room and threw a greasy paper bag onto Callie's bed. There were no pleasantries exchanged and if Cristina's demeanor was a sign of anything, it screamed, 'I have no time for your games today.'

"I'm not hungry," Callie whined, taking the bag and depositing on the tray next to her bed.

"Eat." Cristina tore open the bag, letting the aroma of meat and fried potatoes fill the room in hopes to lure Callie into eating.

"I'm not hungry, Cristina." She turned from the tray and began breathing out of her mouth in an attempt to ignore the food smells making her stomach grumble in hunger pains.

"You need to eat. You need to eat so you can take a crap and get the hell out of here. And we both know they won't let you leave until you take a crap. Your wife called me because you won't listen to her, which doesn't surprise me, so eat." She wasn't in the mood to deal with her obstinate friend today. The Chief Judge had abruptly canceled all of his cases for the day and left her and Trevor to have the day off with nothing to do. Nothing to do meant Cristina had plenty of time to sulk over the circumstances of her life and she was not in the mood.

"Arizona called you?"

"Yes, I just said that. She's at the end of her rope with you. She wants you to come home." Cristina watched hope and fear cross her friend's face.

"Bailey's case must be stumping her and she needs help." So they'd talked some. They'd concluded they had problems, but they were still fixable. They'd admitted they still loved each other, too. But Callie was still scared; she was scared that this medical emergency just was a temporary reprieve for them and things would return to the way they were when she returned home.

"No, I think she misses you. You've been her wife and law partner long enough to know she doesn't need help on a case. You can't work on things from a hospital room, Callie."

"Just have her bring me some case files." She wanted to believe Arizona missed her; she missed her wife so much, but it was easier to assume the worst instead of hope for the best and have everything come crashing down around you.

"That's not what I mean and you know it! Don't make me do the sentimental friend thing; I'm not that person. I don't see the glass as half full, so don't make me tell you that you have a chance with your wife that you didn't have two weeks ago, so get your head out of your ass and take it. She wants you to come home, so eat your food, take your crap, and go home!" Cristina threw the wrapped grilled chicken sandwich onto Callie's blanket and watched as her friend tore off the packaging and slowly began taking bites.

"Why are you even here in the middle of a court day?" Callie tried making conversation.

"The Chief had some emergency come up; he canceled the cases for the day and took off in a panic. Sloan, too. I think they wanted to go golfing since it's seventy and sunny out. It wouldn't be the first time." Cristina had been the judge's bailiff long enough to know that nice days, since they were so few and far between in Portland, meant _family emergencies_.

"Richard sucks at golfing." Callie laughed because she'd gone with him a few times when she was his clerk and with her lack of experience, she still trounced his game.

"Yeah, well, put a few beers in Sloan and they'll be on equal ground. He wouldn't dare show up the Chief anyway; it was just an excuse to get out of work for the day. I'm not complaining. Now eat. I have things to do today that aren't babysitting you."

The two sat in silence as Callie ate and Cristina flipped through the channels trying to find something on daytime television that wasn't a talk show or soap opera. Finally deciding on the news, Cristina turned to badger her friend for some fries when she saw Callie's face fall along with the sandwich in her hand.

_"We take you live to the sound where fishermen are responsible for the gruesome discovery of the body of Meredith Grey today."_

_"Thanks, Janelle. It looks as if Meredith Grey's body had been in the sound for some time before being accidentally fished out by a family of anglers today. That's all the information we've been given, so stay tuned at six for any updates we receive."_

"No." Callie's eyes filled with tears as both women watched the scene unfolding on the news. Police boats were scouring the bay while news crews were trying to suck the life out of the PR Officer for any details.

"Come on, Callie. We knew she was dead; it was only a matter of time before they discovered her body." Cristina had come to terms with her friend's death; she still wasn't sure Bailey had done the deed, but she was sure Max was dead. She would have contacted Cristina if she wasn't; they were best friends.

Callie was speechless; Meredith wasn't supposed to be dead. This wasn't happening, it couldn't be happening.

"Cristina, when you came in, was there a man wearing a suit hanging around like he had nothing better to do?" Callie was shaking and the food in her stomach was threatening to come right back out. **  
><strong>

"Dumb and Dumber down the hall staring at the cheap wall art like it was a Picasso?" Cristina thought they were out of place in the hospital. They looked more like Secret Service men than visitors but she figured somebody important was also a patient and didn't give them a second thought.

"I think the food is working fast, so you should probably go." Callie blinked several times to hold back the tears. To everybody else, Meredith and Callie had never been too close and crying over her death would be suspicious. Cristina would be the one to ask too many questions and Callie didn't have any answers for her.

"Yeah, that's a good idea; I'm not being paid enough to stick around for that." Cristina smiled, trying to feign as if she was only there out of obligation when she had been just as worried over her friend as well.

* * *

><p>Arizona was in a good mood. She'd been in a good mood since Callie had gotten out of surgery and they started patching things. Maybe patching was an over exaggeration, but it was a step in the right direction. She'd heard the news about Meredith Grey and she'd get over to see Bailey soon, but right now, she wanted to get Callie out of the hospital and home where she belonged. She had moved all of her wife's things back into their room. She told herself it was to keep a close eye on her while she was recovering, but it was almost for purely selfish reasons. They couldn't work on things in separate rooms; they couldn't talk until the wee hours of the morning and get back what they've been missing for all those months if they weren't together. They were going to be together.<p>

"NURSE!" Arizona stood in her wife's hospital room doorway staring at an empty room.

"Yes, ma'am?" The nurse coming out of the room next door stopped to answer the panicking woman.

"Has the patient in room 502 been moved?" _Where the hell was her wife?_

"I didn't have any transfer papers when I got here and the room was empty when I came on."

"Empty?" _No transfer papers? _Arizona felt the bile rising into her throat.

"Empty, ma'am. I'm sorry. If you follow me to the desk, I can tell you if we have anything." The nurse looked sympathetic at the woman she knew was 502's wife. As they made their way up to the front of the floor, Arizona's mind went into overdrive as worst-case scenarios plagued her overactive mind.

"No, there aren't any transfer papers. Let me grab her chart." The woman turned around as Arizona's panic turned into hyperventilation. She couldn't breathe. Was her wife dead? Why didn't they call her? This was an easy operation; there had been no complications.

"She signed herself out about four hours ago." The nurse watched relief flood over the panicked woman's face before anger took its place.

"Signed herself out? How did she do that? She's a patient; she just can't leave. Why did you let her leave? Where did she go?"

"Patients can sign themselves out and we really can't do anything to stop them, ma'am. I'm sorry. It looks like she signed herself out under the supervision of a Ms. Morgan Rose. That's all the information we have. I'm sorry." She apologized again.

"Who the hell is Morgan Rose?" The name sounded familiar, but she was so upset she couldn't place it.

"I don't know, ma'am. I wasn't here and I came on late today." The nurse didn't finish her thought before Arizona was already gone, on her way to the one person who would know where her wife had gone.

* * *

><p>"Miranda." Arizona had been waiting for thirty minutes for the prison staff to locate her client for their emergency meeting. She'd been on her way to the prison when she got the call that Bailey was requesting her presence at the jail and that made things easier if she didn't have to drag the woman kicking and screaming to meet with her. Bailey had a lot of explaining to do and Arizona wasn't taking no for a fucking answer anymore.<p>

"You're quick, Robbins; I thought I'd at least have time for a shower. Best time to shower is the middle of the day while everybody is in rec or doing their own things. If you wait until night, you're never going to grab a shower and if you do, they're filthy; nobody here can clean up after their damned selves." Bailey was making small talk, which meant she was nervous. She was beyond nervous and she had a right to be.

"They found Meredith Grey's body." Arizona cut to the chase.

"I know. Just because I'm in jail doesn't mean I don't watch the news."

"All the evidence has been washed away." Being the only suspect's lawyer, Arizona knew more than the general public. She had been given a head's up for her own case and had it been any other day, had the events of the day not taken place and it was only about Meredith Grey, it would have been great news for her client.

"That's probably why she was in water. Water destroys evidence; everybody knows that." Miranda wasn't sure why Arizona was so angry, but it was obvious she was going to find out.

"There's _no _evidence, Miranda. None!"

"You said that, Robbins. I'm not deaf." Bailey could see the other woman getting angrier by the second.

"No! You're not hearing me. They can't even identify the body. If her purse hadn't been with her, she'd be a Jane Doe right now. Her face was bashed in. Her fingers ... Miranda, you didn't do that. It ... it looks like a hit. A mob hit. You might be a world-class bitch at times, but that ... that took skill and someone with a vengeance. So why'd you call me here to discuss a plea if you didn't do that?" Arizona was yelling; she was not going to let Bailey lie to her any longer.

"It's your job to do what I want, not argue with me!" Bailey yelled back out of fear. Out of fear of her lawyer and out of fear for herself. "Where's your wife? She'll listen to me."

"You know her so well. Why don't you tell me where she is?"

"What's that supposed to mean?" Bailey quickly stood up and tried to back away as Arizona rounded the table toward her seething with anger.

"It means my wife is gone! It means I have no clue where she is. She's gone, Miranda. We ... we were going to fix things. I thought we were and then she disappeared. Left without a note. Signed herself out of the fucking hospital." Abandoning her route to the smaller woman, Arizona began pacing. This was all just too much for her to take in and the genuine look of fear on Bailey's face when Arizona said her wife was gone caused fear to consume her once again.

"Callie is gone?" Bailey had to grab the table in front of her as her knees went weak.

"YES, Miranda. She's gone. For a few days I had my wife back and now she's gone!" Arizona knew in that moment, she'd do anything she could to get her wife back; she was not giving her up another time.

"You two were fixing things?" Callie loved her wife and if they were going to give it another try, nothing would stop her from being with Arizona. Almost nothing. This wasn't good.

"We were going to try." Her voice cracked and she stopped pacing to sink into one of the chairs at the table. She felt defeated and lost.

"I want the State's Attorney in here. I want to plead guilty." It was now Bailey's turn to panic.

"Miranda, please, where is my wife?" None of them were acting in character, which only proved Bailey knew something. Something she was going to tell Arizona.

"I don't know." And she didn't. She hadn't heard from Callie in days, which should have been a red flag to begin with, but Bailey hadn't thought about the silence until this moment.

"What the hell is going on? What do you know?" Arizona was begging.

"I want to plead guilty and I want another lawyer. You're fired, Robbins." Miranda was doing what she had to do. She was doing what Callie would need her to do. She got the other woman into this mess and this was all she could do to help.

"Tell me where Callie is." Tears streamed down her face; she had to find her wife.

"It's better you don't know where your wife has gone. Go home, Arizona. Take a vacation. Go visit a third cousin in Michigan or something. Just go." Bailey walked over to the door where the prison guards were waiting. "Guard, I'm ready to go."

"Miranda, I won't stop until I find her."

"Arizona if you love her, don't look for her." Bailey's face was sympathetic. She could see just how heartbroken her friend was, and under different circumstances, she'd be thrilled to see that Arizona still cared, but right now, she wished nothing more for them to be still in the middle of a heated and messy divorce.

"I can't do that."

"Then be careful, Arizona. Just watch your back." Bailey turned back toward the waiting guard and was escorted away.

* * *

><p>Arizona didn't know where to start, so she went home. All of Callie's belongings were back at the house and somewhere in the mess, she knew, was the key to all the secrets. She spent hours tearing apart any and all boxes that contained any of her wife's belongings. She checked pocket after pocket of trousers and sweaters, hoping for a receipt or paper that might give her a clue. Her house looked like a war zone, but she didn't care. Room after room had been torn apart; scraps of paper agonized over until Arizona was sure they meant nothing more than whatever they appeared to be.<p>

She called Aria, airports, other hospitals, clients with whom Callie had remained close over the years. Mark and Richard were MIA, but she didn't think twice about that; she figured they were together enjoying the unusual beautiful weather in the normally rainy Portland spring. Cristina didn't have much to say, just that Callie had eaten what was taken to her and seemed eager to come home. Her wife, only hours before, had been planning to come home to her and now she was gone. Arizona thought this might actually push her over the edge of crazy; she didn't understand what was happening and had no clue whatsoever even where to begin to unravel things. She was so scared that something had happened to Callie and so angry at her at the same time. If nothing bad happened, Arizona was going to kill her wife herself.

Walking by the coat rack, Arizona spied Callie's jacket hanging on a hook. Of course she didn't have her coat with her at the hospital. Callie had been taken by ambulance in what she was wearing and nobody thought to grab her coat on the way out. The only clothes Callie had with her were the over-sized sweats Arizona had picked up from the sporting goods store down the street from the hospital. Anything but drawstring pants were too much on Callie's tender incision sites but her wife refused to sit around the hospital in an open gown with her goodies on display for the world to see. She had opted for small amounts of discomfort over the alternative of embarrassing partial nudity. Arizona couldn't even remember what shoes Callie had with her. Going through the coat's pockets, Arizona pulled out a folded piece of paper that had both of their handwritings on it.

**Sarah Michelle**- _Callie, I'm not naming my daughter after Buffy! No way in hell!_

_Jennifer Luella_- **Luella, Arizona? I'm Latina. I don't think so.**

**Amelia Lane**- _Calliope, her initials would be ALT. Let's push the alt button?_

_Allison Kristin_- **That's boring, Arizona. We don't have boring names. Our kids can't.**

**Heather Lynn**- _Didn't you just say mine was boring? You are just as boring, Callie._

_Faith Elizabeth_- **No, Arizona.**

**Dakota Jane**- _Really, Calliope? Arizona and Dakota? Please say that's a joke?_

_Morgan Rose_- **I like this one. A lot. Arizona.** _(Me too, Calliope! This is the winner.)_

**Cynthia Autumn**- _CAR or CAT? No. We might have a boy. Callie, we need boy names._

_Matthew Andrew_- **MAT? Now who's not looking at initials, Arizona?**

**Marcus James**- _Hell will freeze over, Calliope. before I name my child Mark!_

_Cameron Michael_- **I like Cameron, but not Michael so much. Try again, Arizona.**

**Dakota Samuel**- _Now you're just being a brat, Calliope!_ **(I know, but you love me ;p)**

_Joshua Adam_- **You call me boring, Arizona?**

**Gabriel Edward**- _I like Gabriel. Gabriel's nice, Calliope._

_Cameron Gabriel_- **We have a winner!** _(I love you so much, Callie)_

She had to laugh or she'd cry. It was worn, very worn but you could still clearly read it. When they were picking baby names, they'd send this piece of paper back and forth, leaving each other notes on the names the other one had picked. The paper would get taped to the bathroom mirror or show up attached to the steering wheel of their car. You never knew where you were going to find it or what horrible name the other was going to come up with, but they both loved the game they were making out of it. Planning for their future had become the highlight of their extra-long days and depressing at times, jobs. Arizona missed that and she missed her wife. She just started reading through the list when the doorbell rang, causing her to trip over her feet as she ran for the door.

"Ms. Robbins, I know you said you'd contact me, but we should probably talk." The man gripped tightly to the stack of papers in his hand with his solemn facial expression more serious than usual.

"Come in, Mr. Stark." Arizona stood back and let the man in through the front door before she led him into the kitchen, the safest room in the house at this point. "What do you have for me?" She could only hope the man that held _her _biggest secret also held the key to her future, the future she wasn't having with anybody but her wife.

"You aren't going to like what I've found. Please, sit down." He wasn't a nice man by anybody's standards. He knew he was hated by everybody but the scum of defense attorneys who took on any and all cases for an extra buck. Robbins and Torres were always destroying case after case for him and he probably hated them as much as they hated him, but right now, he felt sorry for the woman. What he held in his hands could possibly destroy her and in a courtroom that was one thing, but in life, that was never his intention.

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><p><strong>Disclaimer:<strong> I don't own any of the characters from Grey's Anatomy.


	8. Chapter 8

**Author's Note**: Does anybody ever read these things? I don't read them and I flipping write them. And when I see long ones, I roll my eyes (which means I often roll my eyes at myself) but if you knew me, I talk a lot. I mean, not as much as my best friend, we once went on a 12 hour car trip and I think she talked for 11 of the hours and the other hour I slept. And I digress. I often do. SOOOOOOOooooo... If it weren't for the awesome and talented LibraryNerd doing her beta-thang super late last night, this wouldn't have been ready before I left for an extended weekend. I know this is the shortest of all the chapters but in order to leave you at the spot I wanted to cut the chapter off at, there was no other way. Stay tuned for the next chapter sometime next week. As always I so very much appreciate the love and kindness received, it's a wonderful reminder for me so thank you. Have a lovely weekend Marshmallows (or Cupcakes as one of you so chooses to be called). ~Blue (PS- Thank you to my lovely friend/artist 2damnpretty2die and my lovely friend for everything she's ever done to support me, stopbreathe)

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><p><em><strong>Circumstantial Evidence- Chapter Eight<strong>_

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><p><em><strong>In an alternate universe, we meet attorneys Calliope Torres and Arizona Robbins. ... Word.<strong>_

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><p>Arizona led the private investigator through the war zone that was her foyer and into the kitchen. Pleasantries were ignored as Arizona made room for him to spread out quickly, haphazardly shoving the mess from table and onto the floor. He took his seat with Arizona pacing behind him.<p>

"This is how it goes, Ms. Robbins. You don't ask how I acquired these photos," he laid them down one by one, "and I don't question why you need them."

"Fine. Great." Arizona ran her hand through her messy hair while waiting for Stark to finish emptying his file folders. He was being painstakingly slow and she was running on forty-eight hours awake with her nerves completely shot; at this point unless he knew the whereabouts of her wife and she didn't give a rat's ass to how he obtained the photos. There was little she cared about at this point except getting her wife back. Safe and home so she could kill Callie herself.

"I mean it, Ms. Robbins, I won't go to the police with what I've found here and I could get in a lot of trouble withholding this evidence."

Arizona stopped in her tracks before bee lining for the table of photos. Evidence? Police? Just what the hell did he find? Grabbing photo after photo, Arizona gasped at what she held in her hands. Each photo was date-stamped and/or time stamped from the security feeds into which Mr. Stark had illegally tapped. With one glance, Arizona quickly realized that she knew those dates well. She also knew the subjects of those photos just as well.

The first set of photos were of her wife standing at a bank teller, handing a withdraw slip. Cash being received. Miranda Bailey in the flesh, clear as day, standing next to her in each and every photo. Callie looked distressed; Miranda looked angry. And Arizona was fuming with this new turn of events.

The next set were grainy as if they'd been captured from a distance and blown up for the purpose of identifying people, places, things. They were of a bakery café down the street from the bank where her wife had gotten the money. They were sitting at the outdoor patio with Callie looking nervous and Bailey looking infuriated. Miranda Bailey's involvement only set to anger Arizona even more. Her fears that Callie's involvement in Meredith Grey's disappearance for more than attorney-client privileges were at an all-time high.

Matters were not helped as Arizona found herself staring into the face of the subject of said anger. Meredith Grey. The one and only missing Meredith Grey. Joining them. Joining her wife and client at the bakery café. The one and only Meredith Grey, missing only hours after those photos were taken. The missing and presumed _dead_ Meredith Grey.

"Callie, what have you gotten yourself into?" Arizona sighed when in the next photo, her wife was seen handing Meredith Grey the envelope of money she'd just withdrawn from the bank. The envelope of money that drained her wife's bank account dry. The envelope of money that had been one of the root causes of Arizona's loss of trust in her wife. The envelope of money that had started the downward spiral of the decay of their marriage.

Okay, maybe not the start of the spiral, but it was enough to push a strained marriage to the breaking point. Even Arizona had to admit that they were having problems before all of this occurred. She was keeping secrets just as her wife was and that compounded with overworking, stress, and a bit of intimate laziness on both of their parts and it was a recipe for … for where they were today.

According to the time-stamps, they only stayed for another five minutes before they parted and all went their separate ways. Arizona was so focused on her wife that she didn't see the whole picture. She wasn't looking at the _whole picture._

The last set of photos Arizona dared look at was Callie in a crowded parking garage heading for her car. Faces, they were all a blur as tears filled Arizona's eyes. She recognized her wife and little else, but why would she recognize anybody else when to her their faces were simply strangers in a crowd?

"Will there be anything else you need?" Stark pushed his chair back, standing away from the table.

"No. Not right now." Arizona spoke after clearing her throat. "I'll be in touch with you, Mr. Stark."

"I have no doubt." He smirked, but it lacked the usual punch of narcissism behind it.

The man was a vile man. He had one goal in mind and it was to make money and, in theory, rule. Nobody liked him or if they did, they were in the minority. He was self-absorbed, cruel, heartless, and selfish. Arizona despised him and there were few people in the world she despised. But here he was, risking his own freedom for something both of them knew was far from Kosher. These photos proved Meredith Grey was alive … or had been at the time of her disappearance. That was withholding evidence in an ongoing police investigation. A homicide investigation. And this could ruin both of their careers to say the very least.

"Thank you," Arizona whispered as she watched the man she'd held as her nemesis all these years find his own way out of her house.

"You're welcome." He nodded and silently disappeared, leaving Arizona the privacy to collapse into the chair he'd just exited in a storm of tears.

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><p>Not much was said in the car ride over. Not much had been said when she called him up and asked for help. Arizona didn't ask for help so when he got the call in the middle of breaking in one of the new law clerks, much to his dismay, he dropped what he was doing and went to her aid. She sounded so sad and broken on the phone that Alex would have taken a bullet if it would bring joy back into her voice. Joy that had been absent for so long now that he feared it would never return. With Callie now missing, he was certain unless they found her, alive, that it would never ever return. While Alex had been extremely hard on Arizona for her fault in the destruction of her marriage, it was out of sheer love. Friends held friends accountable. No, Arizona wasn't completely responsible for the current state of affairs for her marriage and he knew that very well, but she was responsible for her part and he'd be less of a friend for letting her get away with that. He knew they both loved each other; people didn't fight like they did without underlying emotions ruling their motives. In order to hate somebody so much, you had to love them just as much because love drove hate, at least in that capacity. Would Alex still help Arizona if he was sure she didn't love her wife? Yes, no doubt, but he was even more eager knowing what he knew about Arizona's feelings for her wife. She didn't want a divorce and neither did Callie.<p>

"So, my lawyer that set me on the straight and narrow is having me break in?" In the crouching position, Alex pulled out his _retired_ lock-pick set and got to work. Within thirty seconds, the locked popped and he was opening the door for Arizona to lead the way into the darkened corridor.

"Shut up. How'd you get so good at that anyway?" Arizona raised an eyebrow at the expertise her friend, the _ex_-con, displayed.

"Juvie was B&E, but I was nabbed for petty theft which is where _you_ came in. I was well on my way to bank vaults had they not caught me." He smirked with pride. Yes, Alex Karev had turned over a new leaf, worked _for _justice instead of against it, but there was still a bit of smugness to him when he thought of just how good he had gotten himself at slipping in and out of some of the most locked down and secured houses without blinking an eye.

But he was past all of that. Or he had been, until today. "So if we get caught, who the hell is going to get us off?"

"Me." Arizona smiled. She'd already thought this plan through, all the way to the end with at least three different contingency plans. Arizona didn't do anything half-assed. Except her marriage and even then she _mostly _had reason behind her actions. At least reason that sounded good to _her _at the time. "It's simple, you broke in here being distressed over the murder of your dear friend wanting to exact revenge on her alleged killer. But Bailey was still like a mother figure to you, a cold, hard exterior of a mother but a loveable mother figure nonetheless and you couldn't go through with your plans and had a change of heart after falling back into your disappointing old ways. So you called me. I'm just here to protect my client's rights and see that because of his ability to make things right after his fall from grace, that he gets treated with respect."

"You owe me. You know that, right?" Alex would of course take the fall for his friend and mentor; there was never a doubt about that. Had it not been for Arizona in the first place, Alex would probably be serving fifteen to twenty, at the very least. Sure, Webber had a part in Alex's current lifestyle choices, but it was Arizona Robbins who took the time really to see Alex for something other than a screw up with no future. It was Arizona Robbins who dug her heels in and refused to let Alex go down the path of self-destruction any longer.

"Just shut up and do your thing. Go work on getting those file cabinets opened. I'm going to go through their desks." Arizona slipped silently through the adjoining doors leaving Alex to pick more locks.

"So not only did we break into what's probably a crime scene, we're taking things from it?" Alex tried hard to hide the nervousness he was feeling. Arizona wouldn't lead him astray … would she?

"Precisely."

"If they find out, this is my third strike. Not even Webber is going to be able to protect me."

"It's not going to come to that anyway, Alex. Bailey and Grey were lackadaisical when it came to security. Bailey, being an ex-cop should know better, but I guess she didn't figure they'd have cases that needed it. Cheating spouses don't get that kind of response is my guess. Just do what I brought you here for, Alex, and stop dawdling while I read what the hell Meredith Grey was working on."

"You're the boss."

"I am, aren't I?" For weeks, if not months, Arizona had just barely been going through the motions of living and even though life was even crappier now than it had been just a week ago with her and Callie at each other's throats, the hope she'd been given was enough to take the edge off of the stress off. Even in times like this, she could finally find humor and joke with her friend.

They'd collected old and current case files from both the file cabinets and the private investigators' desks. Hidden in a small secret compartment in Bailey's stapler was a thumb-drive containing who knows what, but it was worth checking out since Bailey thought it was best and safest to keep it hidden. Arizona even thought to grab the waste in the trash bins just in case there was something there. She wasn't going to miss anything; she was going to get to the bottom of this and safe her wife, save her marriage.

Arizona could hardly breathe and Alex was so shocked that he was speechless, something that didn't often happen. Neither said a word as the screen before them faded to black. Neither moved and the silence dragged on for what felt like hours. Blinking rapidly, Arizona blindly reached for the closest thing possible, shattering the silence as a juice glass made its way across the room, smashing into tiny shards against the wall, mimicking both Arizona's patience and heart.

She'd never felt so betrayed, not even when she believed her wife was cheating on her. Deep down, even though her mind was screaming foul play, Arizona knew in her heart of hearts that Callie would not ever and could not ever cross that line. But here, she'd had no preconceived reason to believe she was being betrayed. At least prior to the findings of the private investigator she'd hired and what they'd stolen from Bailey & Grey's private investigative firm. And now … this all far surpassed just betrayal. Arizona's nearest and dearest duped her. Not just her, but her and Callie and she wondered had they not, if her wife would be safe and home right now. She was past furious. Was there something past furious? She wasn't certain there was even a word for the level of anger she was now experiencing.

"What are you going to do?" Alex finally spoke up, knowing he was risking the brunt of her anger, but also realizing they were on a time crunchand couldn't risk wasting too much more.

"I'm going to murder people. That's what I'm going to do," Arizona growled. She couldn't think rationally; all she could do was plan murder … numerous murders.

"What do you need me to do?" Not that he'd actually murder somebody, even for Arizona, but he figured that once she calmed down, there would be more work for him to do.

"Go home. You need to go home, now." Arizona growled.

"Arizona, I can't leave you like this."

"Alex, you just heard everything I heard. You saw everything _I _saw. So you know how serious this is. What you need to do is go home, lock your door, call in sick, and stay the fuck away from me until I contact you. Too many people are involved and I won't risk you, too."

"You already …"

"Alex, GO HOME!" She screamed, looking up at him with red-rimmed eyes, her patience running thin, and the rest of her falling apart at the seams.

She waited until she was certain he wasn't just out of the house, but well on his way home before she moved the mouse to hit the replay button on the player. Familiar faces once again filled the fifteen inch screen and it took all her control not to throw the laptop in the same direction the juice glass had found itself shortly before.

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><p><strong>Disclaimer:<strong> I don't own any of the characters from Grey's Anatomy.


	9. Chapter 9

**Author's Note**: So we're leaving today and our usual path (I say usual as if we'd been here before which we haven't), anyway our path is flooded and my lovely GPS is having a meltdown, temper tantrum of epic proportions so while I'm actually on wifi looking up different ways home avoiding the possibility of more flooding and forever being stuck in the great scary red state of Virginia and not NOVA, we're talking Southern-South Virginia (which is very lovely just not my cuppa tea if any of my readers are from there), so I digress again and while online, I figured I'd update this after such a kind receiving and reviews for the previous chapter. I do plan for a few/couple/more days in between updates because I love cliffhangers (or not immediately letting you in on pertinent information), a lot. I hate reading them myself but I LOVE writing them. And I apologize because there are a lot of cliffhangers and waiting to be coming your way. So enjoy, have a lovely (and wet) start to your week (I do mean wet as in: it's raining; however if you choose to take that in another literal sense, enjoy that too), Happy Monday, and all of that wonderful stuff. Know how awesome you guys are, I'm so honored that so many people have such lovely things to say. Thank you.

PS- I always seem like I forget to thank my wonderful beta but really, it's kinda like because she's my right arm. Or left arm, she can decide which one she prefers. So it's not as if I forget her, she's just there, being awesome, doing her thing. Her thing is awesome in case you were wondering. And every single word written goes throughs my dear friend StopBreathe (I originally had a quadruple negative here and my brain almost exploded trying to decipher what the heck I meant). She seriously is my muse in human form. Maybe not muse, maybe she's that part of the brain that after writing and getting kufundled (it's a word, deal with it), she takes over and shows me where I'm going wrong. She's like dude, what the hell are you writing, that's gibberish. Except she's much nicer and she'd never say dude. As always, I digress, she's a blessing and thank you, always. 2damnpretty2die, I see you hiding over there you closet stalker. Get out of that woman's closet and come take your praise. You're awesome. You're talented, kind, and such a lovely addition to the people I call friends. Thank you for every time I need art, reading through even the roughest of stuff to produce me masterpieces.

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><p><em><strong>Circumstantial Evidence- Chapter Nine<strong>_

* * *

><p><em><strong>In an alternate universe, we meet attorneys Calliope Torres and Arizona Robbins. ... Word.<strong>_

* * *

><p>Arizona wasn't even certain she slept. She remembered lying down on the couch and she knew she'd cried for God only knows how long, but next thing she knew, she found herself at the prison. Her hair was wet so at least on auto-drive, she still took care of everyday things such as personal hygiene. And now she was once again pacing. Pacing and waiting. Bailey's cell block was at recreation, so it wasn't going to be an easy find for the prisoner, but Arizona would wait. She'd wait as long as she had to, but the longer she waited, the angrier she grew and that wasn't going to be much fun for Miranda Bailey once Arizona got her hands on her.<p>

"Do these people have my wife?" Arizona threw down the photo stills from the video clip along with the others she'd gotten compliments of Stark's investigative skills. Miranda wasn't even in the room and free of her shackles before Arizona pounced.

"I don't know what you're talking about." Bailey ignored the pictures before her taking a seat at the far end of the table after the guard found himself out of the room to give them privacy.

"_Tell me, Miranda!_ I _know _you and Callie are involved," Arizona growled, again shoving the photos toward her client, her friend, the one woman who could make a real difference in the case if only she'd just stop being so … so Bailey. "Who are these men?"

Miranda recognized the still shots immediately from the video she'd hidden in plain sight in her office stapler. The video hide was more as backup in case Bailey needed something to get herself off. Word of mouth, even from those who have power and pull, wasn't going to be enough. She _needed_ to cover her own ass because she was certain nobody else would or could. It wasn't that she didn't trust her attorneys, for the most part, but she didn't trust the rest of those involved. They had an agenda and her freedom was low on the totem pole.

Shuffling through the photos, Bailey began scouring the ones Stark had given Arizona. She didn't even question how Arizona had come to have these in her possession, she knew with her and Meredith out of the game that there was only one person who could get this caliber of evidence. One person who wouldn't mind tiptoeing that very thin line between right and wrong, between legal and an orange jump suit.

"Who's that man in all these photos?" Bailey asked, finally looking up at Arizona with confusion etched on her face.

"You tell me. You're the one keeping secrets. Secrets that could kill my wife. So tell me, Miranda, who the hell he is and don't play games."

"Robbins, I'm not playing dumb." She shoved aside the incriminating photos, well, the most incriminating of the incriminating photos, and pointed out the stranger in the distance keeping an eye on both of them. Both her and Callie. And Meredith Grey in the later pictures.

Arizona focused on something other than her wife in each photo realizing that this man was in each and every shot, always at a distance, but always looking in their direction. He was even in the parking garage paying close attention to her wife leaving by herself. Arizona's breath caught in her throat. She recognized him. "I've seen him before. Where have I seen him?"

"_Callie, just because we're getting a divorce doesn't mean you can't talk to me about our fucking cases. I'm tired of your damn memos." Arizona threw open her wife's office door without notice and immediately began ranting before she realized they weren't alone. "Oh, I'm sorry. I didn't know you had a client__,__" she quickly backtracked, feeling foolish, "I'm sorry again." She started backing out again._

_Callie looked up from the gentleman in her office to her wife with bloodshot eyes, her voice gravely as to match the look of despondence on her face. "He's not a client and he's leaving."_

"_I was just leaving. I'll be in touch again, Mz__. Torres." The unnamed man picked up his briefcase and briskly walked by Arizona without even a glance in her direction. His annoyance was more than apparent at the interruption, but he remained professional nonetheless._

"_Who was that?" Arizona waited to question her wife until she heard the front door of their firm slam shut._

"_No one, Arizona." Callie cleared her throat and tried to put on a brave face. Between her visitor and her wife, she wasn't sure how much longer she could hold it together. "What did you need?" She asked as if Arizona's outburst minutes before was forgettable. _

"_One of your lovers, I presume?" Arizona smirked, smug-like for catching her wife in the act._

"_Damn it, Arizona, I can't deal with this today__. __W__hat do you need?" Callie's voice cracked and those tears she'd been so strong at keeping at bay began slowly sliding down her cheeks._

_Realizing Callie was upset and not for the reason Arizona first presumed, she dropped her anger act because it was just that, an act. An act to cover the feelings of hurt and betrayal and it was easier to be angry than it was to be open and honest and communicate with her wife what she was feeling__,__ what all this was doing to her. So she dropped the act and with concern approached her wife. "Are you okay, Callie? Who was that, man?"_

"He was in your office?" Bailey looked frightened and for good reason. "This man was in your office?" She repeated herself more for her own confirmation.

Arizona slowly nodded. "Yes. Who is he, Miranda?" Bailey was scared but Arizona, she was terrified.

"Then he's been following your wife for some time. He thinks she knows where Meredith is. If he's been keeping tabs on Callie, he … this isn't good, Robbins."

"Is Meredith alive?"

"Yes. Or she was. I … I don't know anymore." Bailey cradled her head in her hands, her elbows propping her slumped posture up with the weight of the world on her shoulders.

"Where's Callie, Miranda?" Arizona begged.

Taking a deep breath, Bailey looked up at Arizona. She had to come clean; as clean as she could under the circumstances. "Unless _they_ know for certain Meredith Grey is dead, they aren't going to harm your wife. They wouldn't even go after her. Callie. They wouldn't hurt Callie because they need her. They'd be using her to find Grey. But I don't think that's the case with your wife. … Set up a press conference, Arizona. I'm admitting my guilt on National Television."

"Why?"

"They really need to think Grey is dead. Callie's a smart woman. She disappeared within hours of the finding of the what we assume is the corpse of Meredith Grey. My guess, and my gut is never wrong, my best bet is that your wife is scared and hiding. Once they think Grey's really dead and I don't know if she is, but your wife is gone and I'm in jail, everyone including you will be safe." Bailey tried explaining her jumbled thoughts, but by the look on Arizona's face, she was failing.

"What if they have Callie already?" It wasn't an outcome Arizona could rationalize. She couldn't lose her wife. "And who is they?"

"There's no way they could have gotten her out of the hospital without drawing attention to themselves. Your wife is smart and knew the possibilities of having to run. She ran, Arizona. She ran to save you."

"Save me?"

"With you two getting a divorce, a very messy and public divorce, you were safe. They are smart and would know that they couldn't use you as leverage if it came down to it, so the divorce has been a blessing in disguise," Bailey explained.

"Callie rolling over so easily was a façade? She … she didn't want a divorce?" Arizona wasn't sure what was worse, putting Callie through everything or her having been put through everything. It was all such a mess.

"No, Robbins. Open your eyes. She wasn't cheating on you. She was protecting you from the get-go. The divorce, oh, it's real as you know very well since you filed for it, but she never wanted this. She never wanted any of this. Callie has a good heart and was helping out a friend because she was the least likely to do so and bring attention to herself. We thought, we all thought she would be fine. None of us knew she was in danger, that we were being followed."

"What am I supposed to do about Callie, Miranda?" Deflated, Arizona now collapsed into the chair parallel to Bailey. Every new twist angered her, worried her, and confused her.

Bailey sighed. "Telling you to wait is useless."

"Yes."

"Be careful, Arizona. These people, they're dangerous."

* * *

><p>Arizona wasn't sure what her next move was to be. She hadn't a single idea of where Callie would run. Miami wasn't an option and she had no other ties outside of Seattle. Besides the obvious that her family was in Miami, Callie's current state of mind couldn't deal with her parents and she was certain her wife would never put Aria at risk either. So where would Callie run? And why wouldn't she just take Arizona with her? Arizona would have gone with her; she'd have gone to the ends of the earth for Callie. What saddened her was that she wasn't sure Callie knew that anymore or believed it if she did.<p>

It was still early, but she had to figure out where to go, what to do. Returning to her laptop, Arizona opened her personal email intent on informing her parents of her impending radio silence and for them not to worry. She didn't know where she was going, but they'd worry and that wasn't something she could live with. She'd done enough damage to her loved ones and was putting an end to that now.

**Ecard from Egreetings**: **Mark sent you an Ecard from **

Arizona couldn't fathom why in the hell Mark of all people would send her an Ecard or any card for that matter. There was no known holiday or celebration that would account for one and she really wasn't on Mark Sloan's good list. For good reason, but that didn't matter.

After clicking the link, her screen was bombarded with dancing teddy bears and obnoxious, cheesy music filled the stale air.

**Congratulations on your **_**safe **_**and healthy baby girl, Morgan Rose. Love you. X**

Arizona's heart filled with hope as she took off for the stairs where she was certain the piece of paper had been discarded and forgotten when Stark knocked on the door. It clicked. It all clicked and she was angry with herself that she had missed such a huge clue to begin with. Morgan Rose, the name they'd chosen for their fictional baby girl. Callie had left her a clue at the hospital. She was all right. Or as all right as she could be in this situation.

Returning to the computer with the coveted piece of paper in hand, Arizona looked at the time the Ecard was sent and more relief flooded through her. It was sent within an hour before Callie's departure from the hospital. Most likely from her cell phone, which explained the poor choice of card, but that didn't matter. If Arizona could frame the card, she'd do just that. Callie was alive and safe. Or she was and that's all that mattered.

Running out of the house, Arizona knew what she needed to do and she didn't care who she took down with her. And people were going down. They were going to drop like flies if she had any say.

"Clandestinely Stark, how can I be of service to you this afternoon?"

Arizona cringed at his private investigative firm name. How anybody could think calling somebody with deception in their name was a good idea was out of her realm of understanding, but then again, she'd done just that, so she couldn't judge.

Before answering, she paused, swallowing what was left of her pride. After hiring the man to pry in to Callie, her very own wife's personal business, Arizona was certain she was the scum _on _scum and there was a very special place in hell for people like her.

"Stark, I need your help … again," she admitted.

"Ah, Ms. Robbins, what do I have the pleasure of doing for you this fine afternoon?" Even through the telephone, Arizona could not only hear his vile smirk, but also feel it. Yes, there was a very special place in hell for people like her and people like Stark would be running it.

Too many people were already involved and possibly in danger, herself included, but Arizona _needed_ his help if she was going to get Callie back safe and sound. Being as vague but detailed as possible, she gave Stark a rundown of what she needed. In no uncertain terms and in whatever avenue possible, he was to find out where Callie went. She didn't care how as long as it was immediate. Follow her out of the hospital, break into whatever he needed to get this information, and find out her final destination.

"That's breaking a lot of laws." Not that he cared, but it upped his pay grade, that was for sure.

"That's never stopped you before." Arizona bit her tongue to keep from alienating him with the temper brewing right below her surface. "Let me know when you have the information." She hung up the phone as her car picked up speed with one destination in mind. Ready or not, here she came.

* * *

><p>Arizona Robbins had Mark Sloan by the ear. Five foot five Arizona Robbins was dragging six foot one <em>Judge <em>Mark Sloan by the ear as she threw open the doors.

"Webber, get off that bench and come face me like a man."

From the tone of her voice and the look on Arizona's face, Chief Justice Richard Webber knew better than to argue. He might be the Chief Judge, but even he knew facing off with Arizona Robbins was bad news and it wasn't a fight he was about to win.

"Uh." He cleared his throat. "We'll take a short recess. Bailiff Yang, can you please escort Ms. Robbins and Judge Sloan to my chambers? I'll be with them momentarily." He looked guilty. For a judge practiced on the art of neutral facial expressions, he looked damn guilty.

"Arizona …"

"Don't, Richard. Don't you dare try to placate me. I've had it up to here with your lies." Five foot five Arizona Robbins stood tall as she got in six foot Richard Webber's face. Nobody knew underneath the angry exterior held a woman falling apart, not the way she was taking full control. Her calm, well as calm as a screaming woman could be, façade had Mark Sloan cowering in the corner rubbing at his reddened ear as Arizona went after his partner in crime.

"Arizona, calm down," Richard pleaded.

"Calm down? CALM DOWN? You set me up. You set Calliope up. How dare you! How dare you put us in danger? My wife, my wife is in danger because of you. Was this all a game to you? You knew from the beginning that Miranda was innocent. You knew everything and you _still _put us in danger. Just what the hell were you thinking?" She was riled up and didn't care that this man could end her career before it even started. Her career mattered none. It was all about her wife.

"Richard?" Mark spoke up, confused. While he was pretty sure Bailey was innocent, nobody knew for one hundred percent certainty. Right?

"My intention wasn't to put anybody in danger, Arizona. Certainly not you and not your wife. I needed somebody I could trust on the case and so I had ulterior motives of pushing you and your wife back together. You can't blame a man for trying." Shrugging with a slight air of guilty innocence around him, Webber took his seat behind his massive desk, putting as much distance as possible between himself and the woman with murder in her eyes. His intentions weren't the best all around _but_ he did really want to help out the two women he saw as his dearest friends.

"Richard, Callie is in trouble. REAL trouble here. What you did, you could have gotten us all killed." Arizona's voice wavered, but she held strong. She couldn't break just yet.

"What is she talking about, Richard?" Mark risked a fist to the face and approached Arizona, leading her into a chair and in hopes of calming her down enough to get to the bottom of this, whatever _this _was that was responsible for getting them involved in.

"You don't know? You're … this isn't one of your lame-brained schemes, Mark?" Arizona looked up at Mark towering over her from her seated position. How could he not know?

"He didn't know, Arizona. Nobody did but me and Bailey." Richard sighed.

"Will somebody clue me in to what is going on?"

Arizona didn't answer Mark and Webber didn't look as if he was going to disclose any information. Opening her bag, Arizona pulled out her small laptop and opened it, the video from Bailey and Grey taking fill of the screen.

"_You understand when Meredith Grey disappears, there's a good chance the speculation will be on you, Ms. Bailey?" The man in the suit spoke looking, between Meredith Grey, Miranda Bailey, and Richard Webber until each nodded in confirmation._

"_We won't let you rot in jail forever, but we can't be of any assistance until our case begins. Once we're able to round up everyone involved, you will be free and in the clear__,__" __h__e continued to explain._

"_I get it__,__" Bailey growled, glaring toward Meredith. "Jail's safer for me and them thinking Meredith is dead helps your case. I'm not stupid, so just do your damn jobs so I can get back to doing mine!" _

"_Judge Webber will see to your counsel and safety in prison. Putting an ex-cop in with general population no matter how long it's been since you've been on the force is a tricky situation, but please believe us when we say, your safety is our number one priority." The other suit spoke up, hoping to smooth the waters, but instead only served to rock the boat even more._

"_My safety? Your concern? Bullshit! Your own asses is your concern. Bringing down the Los Zetas Cartel is your concern. Grey and I? You don't give a shit." _

"_Miranda, these men are doing their jobs__. __W__hat Meredith witnessed …"_

"_Is her fault, not mine, but I'm being punished. She gets what, a comfy new identity, and I get prison mush for how long? Don't Miranda me, Richard. I told her to steer clear of that case. I told her it was a bad idea, but when does Meredith Grey ever listen to anybody?" _

"_Bailey, I'm sorry__,__" Meredith finally spoke up herself._

Arizona didn't bother to show the rest of the video to Sloan. He'd seen enough to know that Richard had orchestrated this and things were far from kosher.

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><p><strong>Disclaimer:<strong> I don't own any of the characters from Grey's Anatomy.


	10. Chapter 10

**Author's Note**: Yeah work got REALLY in the way for this update and beta'ing/story improvement was an adventure split between the wonderful and crazy **2damnpretty2die** (who is UPDATING soon. She's UPDATING Dystopia. And don't give her crap because we all lose our muses and life gets in the way but she's trying and that's what matters) and then the awesome and crazy (too) **stopbreathe** my English Prince(ss) (hehe). Both lovely ladies that helped me out of a bind and always keep me and my writing on our toes. Thank you beautiful people. And I know I reached out to the reviewers with accounts but to those who I can't reach, THANK YOU so much for your kind words and encouragement. I'll try to be faster with updates but I can only post when time allows me 30 minutes at a time, which isn't often. Thank you. You're all awesome. And I'm super excited about the next 2 chapters which will be longer but I didn't want to give too much information away here in this one so you are surprised when you see what happens next. I'm just setting things up really so bear with me. Thank you.

* * *

><p><em><strong>Circumstantial Evidence- Chapter Ten<strong>_

* * *

><p><em><strong>In an alternate universe, we meet attorneys Calliope Torres and Arizona Robbins. ... Word.<strong>_

* * *

><p>While Richard had insider knowledge of the operation, practically from the very beginning, his role of informed ended with the new turn of events. He didn't know where Callie had gone. He didn't know if Meredith Grey was indeed deceased by way of a murderous plot. And he didn't know that <em>they <em>knew Callie was part of everything from the moment she withdrew thousands of dollars, depositing the monies into Meredith Grey's warm, living hand. Richard Webber was now a useless dead-end and Arizona didn't have the time to waste trying to tap a dry well.

"Arizona. Arizona stop!" Mark chased after her but she refused to stop until they were clear of the courthouse walls. The walls had eyes and ears and if somebody without power such as Stark could illegally gain access to security feeds from some lesser places of banks, she was certain that these people with what she assumed had more money than God, that they could easily have access to the security cameras at the courthouse. Even if she was blowing it out of proportion, it wasn't a risk she was willing to take.

Once a safe distance away, Arizona finally stopped to face the man. Mark shook his head at his colleague. They were both used as a patsy; all three of them now wore that badge of honor. This was a colossal mess and he felt partially responsible for getting them all involved. Even if his role had nothing to do with Callie's current predicament and his ignorance to the real facts of the case had him in the dark from the beginning, Mark still had a hand in things and that made him a guilty party. And damn did he feel guilt-ridden; he had to make things right if he could. If he hadn't gone along with Richard planning Arizona and Callie's involvement, maybe his best friend and her wife wouldn't be in this mess. He still wasn't sure what exactly _this mess_ was but it veered so far from the plan. It was _his _idea to throw the two women in contempt knowing how easy it was going to be for them to cross the line from courtroom etiquette to emotionally charged scorned spouses. Richard wanted to put them on Bailey's case forcing them to work together but knowing they wouldn't be willing participants, the two concocted their part blackmail, part bribery plan down to the last letter. It was also essentially Mark's idea to put them on house arrest. Yes, they could have worked just fine living in separate residences but it wasn't only about securing Bailey's freedom, it was about forcing them to deal with whatever it was that had put such a wedge in between two of the most devoted, loyal, and in love people they'd ever known. Callie and Arizona couldn't do that if they weren't in each other's faces day in and day out, twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week until the end of time or until they fixed their marriage, whatever came first. Mark didn't know Richard had ulterior motives but if it hadn't been for his own scheming, maybe Richard wouldn't have found it so easy to throw his own plan into action. Maybe he would have failed before he even began.

All Mark wanted to do was fix his best friend's marriage. In his past less scrupulous days Mark had broken up one of his nearest and dearest friend's marriage and could do nothing to fix it. He lived with that every day of his life and in the here and now, he felt some sort of responsibility to make amends by fixing his other best friend's marriage if at all possible.

Arizona didn't give Mark much information on Callie's part past that the missing money that she had once accused to be used for an illicit affair yet was in reality given to Meredith Grey and that the cartel knew this fact. Well minus the affair fact, unless the cartel was _that_ good and read courtroom transcripts but she doubted they cared enough to go to such great lengths for a minor player in all of this. When Mark probed further, Arizona didn't divulge how she knew all of this, just that she did.

"What are we going to do?"

"There is no we, just me, Mark, not you." Arizona finally cracked choking on the tears she was no longer in control over. She didn't bother fighting as he pulled her tight against his body; finally giving in and letting go, sobbing into the his stomach as her world imploded, crushing her under the burden. She didn't feel like she could trust anybody anymore but she had to, she had to because Callie's life was too important._ Callie was too important to her._

While it wasn't the most convenient time nor was it really all that appropriate, Mark felt compelled to apologize and knowing Arizona wouldn't normally listen, he used her moment of weakness, her uncharacteristic trust in him as a _friend_, to say what he needed to say. He needed to clear the air. "I didn't know. I'm so sorry. I didn't know any of it. I really didn't Arizona. When things went _really _south between you two, I didn't know what was going on with Callie. I never would have said the things I did to you about your marriage, about _you_, had I known. I … I was wrong. You're a good wife. You _both_ are and I know you love each other. Things, they just got …"

"They got really screwed up." She interrupted him feeling more than slightly uncomfortable listening to his praise. "We are both to blame but as much as it pains me to admit, you were just being a good friend. I'm glad, I'm glad she had you even if you are a royal pain in my ass." Arizona dared crack a smile while wiping away at the lingering tears as she took a full step back from Mark's embrace.

"She loves you. I really believe that she was just trying to protect you, you know that, right? You would have done the same thing in her position. I don't really understand this mess but I know if she thought for one minute that this could hurt you even professionally, she'd take the fall all alone. You can't blame her."

"For the first time in over a year I really believe that she loves me. I just wish she had trusted me enough to let me in. I could have helped."

If only Arizona hadn't been so secretive herself with other matters maybe her wife would have trusted her with this. Arizona thought she too was doing the right thing. She wanted to give Callie everything and never did it cross her mind that she was being deceptive even if for good intentions. If she became a Judge, they'd finally be fine. Callie could run the law firm making pennies if it made her happy and Arizona would know they had a security blanket to fall back on. She was wrong; you didn't keep your wife out of the loop with such important things. You planned together, as a united front. Arizona didn't even know if her becoming a Judge was something that Callie had any interest in for their future. She knew her wife liked them working together and was proud of what they'd turned their firm into from almost nothing. Arizona should have asked for Callie's input, they were supposed to be partners.

And then there was Callie. If only she hadn't been so secretive with this Arizona would have realized that something was wrong. Really wrong, not just their normal marital and professional arguments. Then there was that damn ulcer. Why didn't she put two and two together so much sooner? Yes, Callie stressed for her clients. Callie stressed over money as well but never enough to put a hole of that size into her gut. That damn ulcer should have been a huge neon sign that something was wrong with her wife but by the time Arizona slowed down enough to be aware that something was amiss, things were already past shattered between them. Callie's secrets had become more than a small blip on Arizona's radar and she was so overcome with her own grief in thinking that her wife was cheating on her, that the ulcer and everything else was put on the back burner.

"I could have done something, Mark." Had she not been such … such an asshole.

"I know, this royally sucks; you're hard-headed, Robbins. You both are hard-headed."

"Preach it." Arizona smiled again. "I have to go. I'm going home. I can't just stand around here any longer twiddling my thumbs. If you hear anything …"

"I'll let you know. Going home is a good idea. Get some rest because you look like hell, Robbins." Mark looked at his watch and realized he had court in a matter of minutes. Playing it cool and acting as if nothing was up was the smartest and best route for them all to take and he just hoped Arizona understood that through her distraught state of mind.

* * *

><p>"<em>Ms. Robbins, we need to meet as soon as possible. I will be awaiting your presence at the coffee house across the street from the courthouse. This <em>_**isn't**__ a request. In your email, you will find all the information I was able to obtain but I will explain everything in full detail when we meet in person. I will be here until you arrive. Don't do anything brash Ms. Robbins. I __**must **__to talk to you." Stark sounded scared and that scared Arizona. She'd never heard the man sound anything but pompous and self-serving; this was a side of him that was worrisome to say the very least._

She was already halfway home when she received Stark's message and request of her presence but instead of turning around to return to the courthouse and then back home, she continued down the road. Going home was exactly what she planned to do, so in theory she wasn't lying to Mark. But _staying _at home she was not on her agenda. She couldn't involve anybody else if she could help it so taking a chapter out of her wife's book. She was going to do this alone. Stark was just a tool before she slipped into her future state of isolation because she needed him to get that far in her plan. After that, like her wife, she would be disappearing without a second look back.

Grabbing her tablet, Arizona downloaded the information that Stark had emailed over to her while throwing whatever she could grab into a small travel bag. She needed to calm down before she met with Stark; his insistence of her presence had her anxieties at an all-time high. She needed that facade especially in front of Stark who was only allowed to see the composed and collect lawyer. _Nobody_ was supposed to be allowed to see her falling apart and after the scene she'd made in Richard's courtroom earlier in the day, Arizona needed the extra time to rein in her emotions. She'd spent almost a year now making a fool out of herself because she let her bruised heart overrule her head but no more. She needed to be composed if she wanted to save her wife. A clear head was her only option. this

So Arizona packed her bags and she cried. Used tissues peppered the duvet on her bed, the floor beside and spilled out of the trash bin as she sobbed her way through almost two full boxes. When her dresser drawer refused to close it was a swift kick followed by a few punches thrown into the direction of the wall behind that succeeded in being wonderful outlet for some of the pent up bellicosity competing with misery's lingering choke hold on her emotions. Swollen eyes and tear streaked cheeks were cause for just a few more minutes of stalling in order to wash the evidence of her breakdown from the public eye. Composure was Arizona's goal and she'd accept no less.

"Robbins. Where the hell are you?" She wasn't even given the chance to greet the man on the other end of the line before his voice thundered throughout her car's speaker phone system after hitting the answer key.

"I'm heading back downtown, why? And why are you yelling at me?" Arizona asked annoyed.

"You aren't here? At the courthouse, I mean?" Relief flooded his voice and Arizona could swear it sounded as if he was crying. Or close to something like it because she wasn't sure Mark Sloan had it in him to show such emotion. While he knew she was supposed to have been heading home he didn't actually _know_ if she was lying to avoid a lecture or if she was truly following through with what she said.

"No, I went home like I said I was going to do. I just have a meeting with a client I can't neglect. What's wrong, Mark?"

"Stark was killed. He was murdered."

Her car swerved toward the shoulder of the highway almost hitting the guardrail on the side of the road. Slamming on her breaks, dust and road gravel surrounded her car as she came to an abrupt stop. "What? When!?" Her stomach started heaving on its own accord and before he could answer, she was throwing open the door and violently emptying her stomach's contents as cars on the highway sped past within feet of her disabled vehicle. Road debris peppered her unshielded body but it was of little concern.

"Are you okay?" Mark sounded concerned again. All he could hear was the violent sounds of heaving coupled with the loud reverberating sounds of car engines.

Arizona was immediately flooded with guilt. The word murdered echoing in her head like a boulder falling in the Grand Canyon. She tried to form words, frozen, processing but when she opened her mouth nothing came out. Overpowering grief brought her back to reality. "No. Yes. No. I mean, I was on my way to meet with him. What happened? How do you know? Oh my God Mark, what happened? When did this happen? I just, I just had a message from him. I was supposed to meet him over half an hour ago. When? When Mark?" Arizona did a 180 now unintelligibly rambling giving Mark no room to answer until she could get herself under control

Control? She was violently shaking. She couldn't still her hands, they wouldn't stop trembling. She couldn't get them to stop. Stark was dead. Not just dead but killed, murdered. In her mind there was no room for any alternative but that his involvement in … whatever this was, had got him killed. _She_ got him killed. Arizona Robbins was responsible for his death and her mind screamed as the realization that the threat to Callie's life was really beyond her realm of complete comprehension.

How the hell did they all end up in this predicament? Never in her career as an attorney was she ever in so much danger. Even when she defended Juvenile Offenders who rebelled with graffiti and broken windows when they were sentenced to time in correction facilities because as their lawyer she believed in rehabilitation over a continued life of crime that would surely bleed from juvie into the cold hard steel of prison doors. They were really just menaces with small doses of violence in their threats but not a single one of her past kids regretted the time and effort she had put into saving them. Many came back to her later with gratitude for getting them a second chance at life, once they were past the bitterness of it all of course. But here she was, here _they _were in imminent danger with the blood of at least two of their colleagues already spilled and Arizona hoped, she prayed to a God she wasn't certain she even believed in that it was only two and that Callie's blood hadn't already made three.

Arizona had no other choice but to keep going. She could hear Mark still talking but she was only half listening as she righted herself back in her seat and resumed driving to the best of her ability.

Mark explained that it was what looked to be a sniper had hit him from far range while sitting at a café table. A sniper, in downtown Seattle! The drama from just that knowledge had set Seattle on its head. Meanwhile Stark's head was completely blown off. Had he not had his briefcase on him with his wallet inside, there wouldn't have a face for identification purposes and nobody would be certain it was even him until fingerprints could be taken. They immediately evacuated the courthouse in fear that it was an attempted attack on one of the judges but after their interactions in judge's chambers earlier in the day, with all the evidence building up in Callie and Meredith's disappearances and the knowledge that the cartel was involved, Mark was almost certain that this had to do with that. When Arizona didn't disclose where she got her information, Mark was smart enough to come to his own conclusions knowing she went through Stark as he was her only option. Stark's death cemented his suspicions.

It didn't help that everybody in the criminal justice system knew this was the cartel's calling card. Lower, weaker, less important members of the gang would be arrested for whatever small infraction the police could get them on and pleas would be made to ensure their own freedom and BOOM, they'd be shot from long range on the way into the courthouse to testify in front of the grand jury … if they even made it that far. The cartel never went for wounding or scare tactics; they _always _went for the kill shot, blowing off the face. And if this assassination had to do with the cartel, it had to do with Arizona, which could only mean she too was in deep trouble and serious danger. He had no idea the complexity of what they were all involved in until Stark became a victim of his knowledge. It was pretty easy even while fleeing for their own lives to put it all together.

"You're okay, right Arizona?"

"Yee … yes. I'm just shaken up."

"Where are you? I want you to meet me at my condo and we're going to get you out of Seattle to safety. This wasn't an accident and I don't want you to be next. Callie will kill me if I let anything happen to you." Any other day his sincerity and concern would cause Arizona to question his motives but not today. Today life just changed and things were past serious here. They'd reached a fatal level and Stark was now dead and not so breathing proof of that.

"I can't." Arizona passed the exit Mark was asking her to take and instead crossed four lanes of traffic in order to take the toll road toward the airport.

"Robbins, don't make me hunt you down, you need protection. What if _you_ are next? Where are you?" Mark pleaded.

"I can't, I'm … I'm going after Callie. She's in trouble Mark. I … I got Stark killed. I got him involved and now he's dead. I can't lose Callie too."

* * *

><p><strong>Disclaimer:<strong> I don't own any of the characters from Grey's Anatomy.


	11. Chapter 11

**Author's Note**: Yeah yeah yeah, there were issues that I had to deal with so I dealt with them and now I can post. I didn't mention how much help I had with the last chapter having Sandi, Sarah, and Maxine all help me when I ran into a solid wall on. They all answered the most random, weirdest questions I could muster up without giving away what I truly needed and spoiling the story and they all were champs. I mean my questions posed to them were seriously off the wall ridiculous and impossible to follow but they tackled them with grace. So THANK YOU SO MUCH. Their help also spills into the next chapter (12) as well. Thank you also goes out to my beta- Librarynerds for doing her thang as well as 2damnpretty2die and stopbreathe for everything they did. They're all fanfuckingtabulous. It seems work is kinda crazy so while this is complete getting things over to my beta, her own crazy schedule, and my crazy outside of work schedule means only, at most, 1-2 updates a week, sorry. Life happens and I like to embrace it. Enjoy, thank you to anybody I missed in thanking you for your reviews, you're all very kind and wonderful. See you next week. Xx-Blue

And it looks as if FF is doing that screwing with italicized words thing again and it being 2am and the simple fact that I should have been in bed hours ago but I worked super late so my wind down time is impeding on my sleep time, I'm too tired and lazy to fix them. Okay lazy is a bit of a stretch, my eyes are having the most impossible time focusing on the needed corrections and I'll just screw it all up if I try.

* * *

><p><em><strong>Circumstantial Evidence- Chapter Eleven<strong>_

* * *

><p><em><strong>In an alternate universe, we meet attorneys Calliope Torres and Arizona Robbins. ... Word.<strong>_

* * *

><p>Arizona couldn't charter her own plane, but she could and did book the very next flight out of Seattle for What The Fuck, Middle America. Against Stark's better judgment and advice of taking off before she had all the information, Arizona arranged to have a rental car waiting at her disposal for when she landed. Unsure exactly of what lay ahead, she also asked them to stock the car with maps, both local and state, bordering states as well. If Middle America was anything like the remote areas of Washington State, her navigation system was going to be useless. Hell, her cell phone was probably going to be useless, too. She realized that once she landed and took off for places unknown, she would be solely on her own, and as much as that terrified her, Callie's current obscure whereabouts and the idea of her being alone frightened Arizona even more. Arizona couldn't see the dangers all around with her tunnel vision clouding her judgment. The goal of finding her wife safe and alive was so overpowering, so all-consuming. That feeling in her heart, the subtle tickle of awareness in the back of her brain, the flutter of fear licking at her heels, they were all insignificant when paralleled to her descent down the rabbit hole of lurking chaos.<p>

For the middle of a workday in the middle of the week, the airport was crowded with travelers bustling toward gates for their destinations. Every shoulder shove, every suitcase that ran over her foot or every physical collision causing an almost-face-plant mattered little to Arizona. Her patience for such crowds usually wore thin, but as her mind was a million miles away, patience, awareness, and sense of self-security were of little importance. Buying fashion magazines and smutty-fluffy romance novels gave her hope of some normalcy; maybe, just maybe, she could disappear into a work of fiction so she could forget her own misfortunes. Even though her life currently felt like a flipping novel. Seriously, how the hell did it come to this, with drug cartels, murders, guns for hire, and don't forget to throw in some government agents too. It was like a nightmare except she was completely awake. For the first time in months, she was completely void of her blinders, seeing things clearly. The signs were all there and if she had taken the time to step outside of her own insecurities, she would have seen whatever it was going on with Callie was more than met the eye. All she saw were the marital indiscretions, the lies, and the many, many secrets. Keeping secrets wasn't who her wife was and she didn't give Callie the benefit of the doubt. She _never_ kept secrets; Callie's brisk disinheritance from her family should have been enough of a reminder of that. Arizona was the one who kept secrets from her wife.

"Oh, I'm sorry," Arizona apologized, skirting out of the way of a frazzled mother with a screaming toddler. She only hoped they were boarding at another gate as she was not certain she could handle a five-hour flight without ending up tackled, handcuffed, and ultimately arrested by an undercover Air Marshal for smacking another person's child. Arizona didn't condoned physical violence _especially_ with children, but these were special circumstances. Circumstances like she was still, at the very least, six hours from finding her wife and that was _if _she found Callie at all.

After doing her best to avoid the mother and screaming child, Arizona wasn't watching where she was going when leaving the coffee cart and she ran head first into what felt like a brick wall of man. He should have been just out of her way had she been paying attention. Rubbing at her bicep where something jabbed into her muscle, Arizona continued on her way to wait at her gate. Whatever it was he had in his jacket pocket was going to bruise, but she was certain she exacted her revenge with the stain from where her coffee splashed out of the cup and onto his jacket. Usually that would have conjured an apologetic response, but she didn't care and he didn't seem overly upset that his own ignorance of his surroundings was fair cause of the collision.

The information Stark passed along was sketchy at best but with the little time he had to work on matters and limited resources, it was the best he could do without Arizona having to wait. She had made it very clear to him that it was now or never.

Now or never, that's how Callie lived. She'd lost that essential amount of hope that one must have in order to get through the worst of times and to relish in the best of times. Arizona didn't blame her wife for those feelings and she understood them to a point. Callie's family lived by that rule of thumb; her dismissal from their family without second thought being witness of such practices. So Callie lived in the moment and if things were put on the back burner, like starting a family had been with them, she wrote them off as never becoming a reality.

In the short time while Arizona was putting Webber in his place, Arizona learned that Stark discovered that Callie had _willingly_ left the hospital in tow of two men. That thought alone alarmed Arizona as the only men in their life that they associated with, outside of clients, she had just left chastised in Judge's chambers. The intel Stark passed along to her in his email also included that the three immediately headed for the airport where they boarded a plane to Omaha, Nebraska. From there they boarded another flight, a chartered one this time that took them about eighty miles southeast where it landed on a private airstrip owned by a proprietor by the name of John Sermon of Brownville, Nebraska.

The trail went dead in that small town, population one hundred and thirty-ish. And that ish now included her wife, or so Arizona prayed to a God she still wasn't certain she believed in that it did indeed include Callie.

As there was no car rental facility within fifty miles of the town, the closest being the airport where Arizona herself had landed, Callie and the two men had to have been prepared with their own vehicle waiting. Since there were no security feeds at the landing strip to give any more clues and there wasn't even a security camera at the lone bank in town, Stark's trail went cold.

It was enough, giving Arizona a starting point. So ignoring everybody and everything else, she boarded the next plane out of Washington for Nebraska. A six-hour wait coupled with the five-hour red-eye flight was no time at all compared to the months upon months of separation they'd survived thus far.

* * *

><p>Arizona and Callie didn't get out much with their constant growing caseload in need of their full, undivided attention. Even their honeymoon had been mostly local with a short drive down to a coastal resort town in California and then only for a few days. Except for the occasional flight back East to visit her own parents, Arizona and Callie saw little outside of Washington since they'd first gotten together romantically and up until this drive, it hadn't really occurred to Arizona how much they were missing out on even just the quality time vacation brings along with it.<p>

Callie would have loved this drive with the miles upon miles of rolling green hills and valleys. The scenic view was phenomenal; there was no other way Arizona could even begin to describe the beauty all around. And it broke Arizona's heart worrying that they'd never get a chance to do anything like this together ever again. Or even to begin with. She missed her wife and Arizona was so angry with herself. She'd been so focused on what her own parents didn't give her, trying to find that missing security with Callie so much that she neglected what they did give her and teach her, lacking those most important things with Callie. They loved each other, she was sure of it, even under the circumstances that had become their marriage. It was just that unfortunately somewhere along the way they both lost sight of what was really important: each other. If she found her wife … _when _she found her wife, Arizona promised herself that they were going to change, both of them. It was a marriage, a partnership, and first and foremost, they were both going to put one hundred percent into that. No more separate bank accounts, no more secrets, no more making future plans that didn't involve the other, no more foolish jealously, and no more waiting. They had dreams and they were going to follow them, together. Arizona Robbins loved her wife and it was about time she stopped using her own past as a crutch to hold back from fully giving herself to her wife. And the same was going to be for Callie; no longer were they going to be held down by the sins of her parents because where they lacked the ability to love completely and unhindered, Arizona and Callie made up for that ten-fold. It was time to throw out their baggage and move forward once and for all. There was no _if _here. Arizona had a solid plan: save her wife, ride off into the sunset together. Or maybe something not so cliché. She blamed her cliché thoughts on the fluffy romance novel she read on the flight over. They always gave people a false sense of what relationships were made of:_ I __love you, you love me, let's live happily ever after without a care in the world and never would there be a moment of grief or sadness in such a world._ No, she understood, _finally _understood that with love there will be ups _and_ downs, but like in fairy tales, they too had a chance at happily ever after. There was going to be a happily ever after if she had anything to do about it. Their story was far from over, damn it. She wanted the fluff. Arizona Robbins, hard-ass attorney, penny pinching enthusiast, wanted the flipping fluff no matter at what expense. The expense of her wife's life being the only exception.

Sticking to the speed limits, Arizona didn't want to bring unwanted attention her way. The cars a ways back didn't seem to really care all that much that she never exceeded the posted signs. She figured when nobody rode her rental car's bumper that they were out for a leisurely drive in the country because that's what people in the country did, right? With farms peppering the otherwise vast vacant green spaces and it being mid-morning, well past the time anybody in their right mind would be at work, there was no other reason for the cars on the road in the middle of nowhere. Unless they were looking for Callie Torres and that was _her _reasoning for being there and her reason _alone_.

Excitement bubbled as signs for Brownville came into view. _Welcome __to __Brownville_ was her new favorite phrase in the English language. She couldn't think of any other words that made her heart soar like that sign evoked deep within her.

Turning onto Main Street, she couldn't help but laugh to herself. Just how many Main Streets were in the United States? Couldn't people be more original? At least she knew she was on the right track and didn't have to drive all over looking for the main drag so she should thank the derivative street-namers for their pedestrian sense of imagination. It was a very well-labeled small town that Arizona couldn't imagine being much of a tourist hot spot with a nuclear plant as their main attraction. The winery she passed only minutes before the signs for the nuclear plant made her innards cringe. Her wife had defended enough people in battles against nuclear plants and the like for the destruction of drinking water, farm land, and terrible side effects of living so close to the poisonous properties claimed to be safe and a contributing factor to the living standards of a progressive society. Arizona wasn't sure she'd even drink the water here if it could be avoided, but that was beside the point. Her point was to find her wife.

Arizona parked in a small lot near what the signs claimed was the oldest health food store in Nebraska, another oxymoron in her book. How could you have a health food store just minutes down the street from a nuclear power plant? It wasn't a place she ever planned on frequenting and she was certain Callie wouldn't either with her knowledge of just how unhealthy anything in this area would be to the general public. So Arizona first made her way over to the post office to begin her search for her elusive wife. Asking questions even if she was certain Callie wouldn't need their services wasn't going to hurt; she knew that somebody had to have seen something, somebody had to have seen her wife at the very least.

"Boy, is town bustling with inquisitive people today. You're the second inquiring mind to come into my store for something other than a book. Actually, you're the second person to come into my store in a week. I mean, it's still early in the season for out-of-towners and the locals are really weekenders; I stay open mostly to give me something to do away from my nagging wife. Can't say that I've seen that woman or anybody fitting that description for that matter. I've only been opened for about an hour and nobody came through yesterday. Was as quiet as a ghost town in Texas. But today, haven't even made my way over to the bakery for my scone and coffee. Oh, you should try the scones while you are here. They're to die for. But if you're looking for information, Jack at the Natural Fusion knows all and sees all. He's what we call the town gossiper. When Martha's daughter came home in the middle of the night, divorced with two children still in diapers, he had told the whole town before breakfast; nothing happens in this town day or night that that man doesn't see. Jack is one of a kind, he …"

Her third stop was a quaint little bookstore that reeked of stale cigar smoke and old books with the owner manning the counter that sure could talk. And talk. And talk. Any other time, Arizona would have shown some level of manners and humored him, but she didn't have the patience today. All she heard was that Callie hadn't been there and that's all that mattered.

"Thank you for your time," Arizona spoke briskly, cutting him off whom she assumed was the town's second in command gossiper before he could blather on about anything else. Without a second glance backwards, she was out the door and on her way.

The health food store was a block away, giving her ample time to compose herself again. Each time she left without any further clues to her wife's whereabouts, Arizona almost broke down in tears. How was she ever going to find Callie? Was she going to find her? Who had her wife and what did they want with her?

"Hi. I was wondering have you seen this woman around here recently?" She paused to dig into her bag, grabbing out her cell phone. "Just in the past day or so?" Arizona held up her phone displaying a photograph of them on their last anniversary. "She's tall, five-nine. I know the phone doesn't show that because she's holding the phone herself to take the picture, she's crouching to my height, and it's a bad angle, but she really _is _tall. Her hair is longer now, too, about halfway down her back, but it's been so unmanageable lately that she puts it up a lot, a messy ponytail, mostly. She's lost some weight, too. She stopped eating. That was my fault. She hates doctors and I didn't make her go in when I realized she had an ulcer growing. So she's lost weight since we took this photo. And she hasn't had much sun either with winter just ending and she … we haven't gotten away lately. She might not be alone. And she might look like she's in trouble. I _really _need to find her. Please, can you help?" Biting her lip, Arizona held up the phone to everybody that would listen, her hand shaking ever so slightly in a mix of excitement and fear. She tried so hard to hold her head up high, to smile and look welcoming so not to scare off anybody with her look of despair trying desperately to break through and engulf her completely.

It wasn't just a spiel, but she repeated it over and over again to anyone willing to listen. Person after person shook their heads negatively while muttering their apologies, a few even going so far as to call other people not in the store and inquire about the unknown woman for her.

"Hi, I heard you back there," the stranger motioned toward the end of the aisle, "that you were looking for someone. I hope you don't mind me butting in, you don't happen to have a photo of her, do you? I might have seen somebody that fit your description, but a photograph would be so helpful." She smiled sweetly at Arizona.

"Oh no, no, you aren't butting in. Have you seen her?" Arizona's face contorted into a look of pained hope as she showed the cell phone photograph to the woman.

"Yes, that's her for sure. A few minutes ago, I saw her in a heated argument in the alleyway between here and the travel agent next door. I'm positive it was her."

Arizona almost did a cartwheel as her spirits soared. "Thank you. Thank you. Thank you so much." She raced for the front doors, a new spring in her step. She was so close she could taste it.

Running into the alley, Arizona stopped dead, her spirits now plummeting. Nobody was there; apparently, she'd just missed her wife if the information the other woman gave her was indeed the truth. It didn't matter that she was so close that Callie couldn't be that far away because she had gotten her hopes up only for them to come crashing down. Turning back for the street, Arizona heard the grocery store's side door open, but before she could turn around, her hopes again soaring from the lone sound of a creaking door, in that same moment, her world came crashing down.

"Take one more step and I will shoot you right here, do you understand?" The same voice from inside of the store addressed Arizona from directly behind her, shoving the cold metal barrel of a gun deep into her lower back. "Just nod," she ordered when Arizona tensed and whimpered.

"We're going to walk to my car and you aren't going to speak. You will not draw attention to us or it will be the last thing you ever do. Nod again."

Arizona swallowed hard. Her stomach contents were making themselves known. She nodded, bile burning her throat, filling her mouth from the brisk movement.

"Good girl. Let's go. Move." She pushed forward, adopting an easy stride still able to conceal the gun and look as if two friends were simply walking together.

"Where's Callie?" Arizona finally spoke inside the safety of the car while getting a real good look at her captor. She wasn't anything special to the naked eye. Arizona was almost certain that she could take the woman if she didn't have a weapon and had she also not been immediately handcuffed upon entering the car. But the stranger also knew where Callie was and so her current dangerous predicament meant nothing because of that. She'd risk a bullet if she could just find her wife, alive and unharmed.

"Who are you?" She continued to hold the gun in Arizona's direction even though she was thoroughly restrained.

"Where is Calliope Torres?" Arizona wanted answers and until she got hers, she wasn't giving up any of her own. She also figured that until the woman got the answers to her own questions that her life while still in jeopardy would be spared.

Growling the woman shoved the barrel into Arizona's ribs, smiling when she garnered the painful grunt in response. "I asked you a question. Are you alone?"

"Do I look alone?"

"Think you're a smart one, huh? Just how smart is your idea of smart when you're sitting here in handcuffs with a gun pointed at you?" The woman smiled as she eased the car off of the main roads, leaving behind the rolling hills and valleys that had brought Arizona into town. Even with the thick brush of the forest and intermittently placed houses, there were still enough cars on the same road to amaze Arizona. They traveled for a great distance, the last car behind them turning off down a gravel road just before the road dead-ended at their own destination less than a mile up the road.

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><p><strong>Disclaimer:<strong> I don't own any of the characters from Grey's Anatomy.


	12. Chapter 12

**Author's Note**: A lot of people helped look at this chapter but I'm not sure it's beta'd so if there are mistakes (which there will be), I'm sorry. A VERY special thanks goes to Sandi, Max, and Sarah once again for helping me feel out emotional responses. Without their input, I would still be scratching my head and staring at the walls. And while the walls in my office are rather entertaining and pretty, one can only stare at them for so long before going crazy (crazier). So thank you ladies for your help, I owe you three a lot. PMac gets a shout out because she was supposed to give me a read through but with our crazy schedules we both let it get away from us so thank you, lady, for being ready and willing.

* * *

><p><em><strong>Circumstantial Evidence- Chapter Twelve<strong>_

* * *

><p><em><strong>In an alternate universe, we meet attorneys Calliope Torres and Arizona Robbins. ... Word.<strong>_

* * *

><p>"We have a real problem, Long." A female dressed in everyday clothes came through the door, gun holstered at her hip dragging something behind her.<p>

"What? Were they out of electrolyte infused water? The docs said she could have some of that sporty drink shit if it came down to it." Long looked up from his paper with annoyance for the interruption in his rather boring day. Yes he was bored but a problem wasn't on the agenda either

"Not what ... who." She pulled a shackled and raging blonde woman through the threshold of the door along with her. "HER. I found this one downtown asking questions and snooping around. Asking questions about Torres." She pulled the woman until she was standing between the two holding the conversation.

"Shit Pitts, what the hell?" Long cursed, his face contorting in anger. This wasn't good.

"Yeah, shit! She was alone or I _think_ she was alone. She has a cell phone but hasn't made any recent calls and she isn't packing but that doesn't mean her guns aren't stashed somewhere." Pitts continued shoving Arizona from the foyer until she was standing in the main room with Long clearly blocking her line of sight. "I don't know who she is and she won't answer any questions either."

"You answer mine, I'll answer yours." Arizona spat at the woman.

"Arizona?" From where she was currently occupying a recliner, Callie looked up with trepidation wondering if her eyes were deceiving her or if she just had another fever coupled with hallucination from the small infection coursing through her system.

"You know her?" Long and Pitts spoke at the same time cutting off Arizona before she could answer. "Has she been following you before?"

"Arizona, wha … what are you doing here?" Calliope ignored the questioning pair and attempted to right herself in the chair without causing any discomfort.

"Oh God, Calliope." Arizona finally broke her silence with a whimpered relief at seeing her wife alive even if in the company of two armed captors, whoever they were.

"Sit down!" Pitts forcefully pushed Arizona into the closest chair causing Callie to quickly jump up from her seat grimacing in pain.

"STOP, she's not here to hurt me." Callie screamed before either could cause any physical harm to her wife.

"How do we know that? Just because you know her doesn't mean that she hasn't been bought off, here to seal the deal." Pitts snapped while her partner eyed the new woman with caution.

"She hasn't been bought off. You idiots, she's my wife." Callie interjected finally giving explanation to the unplanned visitor's connection.

Long carefully eyed the two women quickly catching onto small, simple factors that confirmed what they were being told as truth; the two women had the same slim band adorning both of their ring fingers, matching hearts dangling from around their necks and he sighed before a look of anger flushed his entire face. "God damn it, Pitts. This is why we should be given all the information, this _on a need to know basis _is bullshit." Long bitched at his partner.

"Tell me about it. I'm surprised when they shuffled her over into our care they even bothered to tell us about her medical history. Wouldn't be the first time we've been screwed because we were left out in the dark. I'm so tired of being the last to know." Pitts agreed.

"So, how did you find us and why are you here?" Sure they might actually be married but there were still too many chances that Torres' wife had been turned killer? So yeah, Long wasn't entirely convinced; in his history he'd seen enough spouses, especially unhappy and bitter ones, bought off to take our their partners and she could very well be one of them. This wasn't a game and they were trained make people disappear, never to be seen or heard from again. Or at least never to be seen as their current identities again however here was a woman with no known law enforcement background and she had found them. Found them in the middle of bum fuck nowhere.

"Why _are _you here, Arizona?" Callie repeated. She might have known Arizona wasn't a hired gun but how the hell did she find them especially when she had no knowledge of what was going on in the case and to begin with that there was even a case at all..

"Why am I here? _Really Calliope, you have to ask me of all people that question? _My wife disappeared and you expected me to what, sit around and wait for _your _purported body to show up in the sound too?" Arizona snapped at her wife, her wrists pulling against the metal cuffs behind her back as she tried to free herself. She wanted so badly to straddle her wife and choke her now that she saw with her own two eyes that Callie was okay. Or as okay as she could be with ten inches of stitches lining her stomach and IV antibiotics still being pumped into her system.

"Okay then, let's start with _how _you found us, Mrs. Torres." Pitts pulled her keys out to release the other woman but still not convinced she jingled them in her hands instead of freeing Arizona.

"Robbins. We kept our own names, it's, I'm Arizona Robbins." She glared in the direction of the the woman refusing to free her from her restraints. "I hired a PI. And I didn't find you if you remember correctly, I was in town when you lured me into an alley, stuck a gun in my back, threatened to kill me, cuffed and kidnapped me before bringing me _here_."

"You were asking questions in town, we're ten miles out from town and that's close enough for our comfort." Pitts growled. Even if Arizona Robbins had never found their location, it was _too _close and heads were going to roll for this.

"I was looking for my wife who disappeared. She up and left without a trace and I'm more than entitled to look for her and ask questions anywhere I want. Now is somebody, anybody going to let me out of these damn things?" Arizona barked at her two captors.

Sighing and grabbing for his maps, Long shook his head. "Let her go, we're going to have to move them come nightfall so I'll call ahead and get the next location ready. We can't walk them out with that one still sucking down IV antibiotics every six hours so I'm going to call Jack in with another vehicle to aide in cover." He motioned over at Callie, Arizona seeing her wife's physical state for the first time since she left the hospital a few days back to collect Callie's belongings to bring her home.

Getting a good look at Callie, Arizona paled. Her wife looked horrible with her hair slightly matted from sweat, an obvious sign of a fever. Her usually darker skin tones were close to the shade of Arizona's own pale complexion. And there was an almost empty IV bag connected to IV tubing, connected to her wife's damn arm. Callie looking better two days out of surgery than she did right now fueled instant rage. "She wouldn't still be on IV had you left her in the damn hospital. What were you thinking? She just had major surgery less than a week ago. And … and who the hell are you people anyway and why do you even have my wife?" Arizona rubbed at her wrists glaring at the woman who just freed her. She'd been handcuffed a number of times in her career for contempt of court but even Cristina on a bad day had never cuffed her as roughly as this woman.

"US Marshals Pitts and Long." The lone man of the group explained. "Protective custody by order of the Federal Justice Department. And now you too, Ms. Robbins, have just entered The Federal Witness Protection Program whether you like it or not."

Standing between Arizona and her wife, Pitts smirked with vindication. At bare minimum her ass was going to be chewed out over this even if it wasn't their faults so a little discomfort to the cause of their new _predicament_ was enough to take the edge off the impending trouble they were going to be facing.

Arizona looked around between the Marshals and her wife finally seeing Meredith Grey cowering in the corner of the room, looking as guilty as ever. Growling, Arizona was beside herself furious as it all fell into place. With the Marshals blocking the woman she wanted to strangle and kiss all at once, she instead shot out and in the blink of an eye had Meredith Grey pinned securely against the wall. "You … I could kill you!" Arizona yelled.

Guns drawn and pointed at her wife before she could do anything to stop Arizona from making a mistake, Callie screamed. "Arizona, stop! Stop it Arizona before they shoot you."

"You could have gotten my wife killed! What were you thinking? You are supposed to be her friend. Bailey's in prison for _you_ and my … my marriage, do you have any idea what you've done?" Arizona ignored her wife's pleas, her rage blinding her to the fact that both Marshals had their guns drawn with her in the line of fire. "What have you done? I'm going to murder you myself."

"It's fine. She's fine." Meredith nodded to the Marshals while prying Arizona's hands from her body.

"Put your guns away." She pleaded.

Cutting off the drip like she'd been trained since departing the hospital and pulling out the IV from its connection, Callie made her way to stand behind her wife once the Marshals holstered their guns.

"Arizona, I'm okay." She gently put her hand on her wife's back expecting Arizona's blind fury to be rightfully redirected in her direction except again without warning Arizona abruptly spun around but this time pulled her wife into her arms without a second thought of Callie's physical state. Within seconds she broke and began sobbing hysterically and uncontrollably.

"I … I … I thought you were gone for good. I … I thought I'd never see you again." She cried hard, her tears soaking into Callie's sweater as she held tight cradling her distraught wife, rubbing light circles on her back.

"I'm sorry. I'm so sorry."

Marshal Pitts melted _slightly _at the reunion although she'd never admit to such things, motioned to her partner. "Let's run an outside perimeter check and get things settled for tonight. All points in here are cleared and covered." Long only nodded following his partner out of the house to give the women some privacy.

"Don't ever do that to me again." Arizona pushed her wife back, her relief quickly melting into angered hostility. "I thought you were dead, Calliope." She yelled before pulling Callie in for another embrace, her emotions all over the place from adulation to displaced fury. "I thought I'd never see you again. We are in this marriage together and that means no secrets, none. Do you understand me? I'd go to the ends of the earth for you." Pulling back from their embrace, Arizona peppered her wife's face with kisses. She was real and she was here and she was safe.

Callie cupped Arizona's face, wiping at the falling tears on her cheeks. "I'm so sorry. I never meant to hurt you, I just didn't want to get you involved, I didn't want to put you in danger." She explained.

"What were you thinking doing this on your own?" Arizona continued to cry. "I thought you were dead." She repeated over and over again as she finally let her greatest fears take over with their uncontrollable choke-hold.

"I'm not dead, baby." Callie tried to calm down her wife who was almost inconsolable.

"Damn right, you're not dead. Don't you think I can see that with my own two eyes?" Arizona pushed her wife away and began storming around the room. "Do you think I'm stupid? Do you think I'm so self-absorbed that I wouldn't eventually figure out something was up? What do you think of me Calliope Torres? Do you even respect me as your wife? Yeah we're having problems but damn it, did you think I'd just let you disappear without trying to come after you? To find you? What, were you going to leave me with the pieces of our life to clean up by myself? _Oh, we were getting a divorce anyway so this makes things so much easier now that she's just gone. No skin off of my back? _What were you thinking? Did our marriage not mean anything to you?" Arizona was yelling, her voice raising an octave with each question hurled at her wife giving Callie no room to respond. "I can't believe you. And you're alive, what now? Am I supposed to jump for joy that the woman that I'd give my own life for abandoned me? YOU ABANDONED ME!"

Arizona fell into a heap on the couch, sobs vibrating through her body from the tumultuous roller-coaster her emotions had just sent her through. "What is going on? Somebody _please _tell me what is going on?" She barely lifted her head, begging for answers, pleading for resolution of some kind.

"How did you get here, Arizona?" No matter how filled with relief and happiness she was at her wife's unplanned arrival, Arizona being here was a dangerous matter and one that terrified Callie. Arizona being here meant _she _was now in danger and Callie had tried so hard to shield her from that. She risked losing Arizona permanently in order to keep her alive because that's all that mattered, _keeping Arizona safe._

"I guess we all have some explaining to do. Let's get you back on your IV and comfortable." Arizona calmed down immediately feeling embarrassment and shame for her actions. She started to get off of the couch but Callie reached her before she made any progress.

"I'm done this round, let's just sit down and sort this out, okay?" Callie nodded gently, reaching for her wife's hand, gripping it tight in her own to pull the still obviously distraught woman close on the couch cushion next to her.

"Are you coming?" Arizona snarled at Meredith who was still standing against the wall she'd been thrown into only minutes before.

With extreme caution, Meredith joined them around the coffee table sitting a safe distance away on the single chaise lounge.

"Arizona , this isn't Callie's fault, she was just trying to help and things got out of control." Meredith tried to explain but Arizona wasn't having any of her excuses.

"Out of control? Out of control? This is far past out of control, Grey." Arizona growled.

"Let her talk, honey. Please?" Callie begged, her thumb rubbing circles on Arizona's hand to calm her when all she really wanted to do was pull her in tight and hold her forever, never letting her go but Arizona's stiff posture was warning enough to know she wouldn't have it; not right now.

"Fine, talk. Please Meredith tell me exactly how you got my wife involved in your screwed up life." Arizona took calming breaths trying to dispel some of the anger currently eating her alive in order to give Meredith Grey her full attention. She _needed _to get answers and they wouldn't happen as long as she continued to fight every time one of them opened their mouths to speak.

Looking everywhere but at the raging blonde in front of her, Meredith fiddled with the blanket she pulled into her lap. Arizona was not somebody you wanted to mess with on a good day and this sure as hell wasn't a good day. She'd worked for the pair for long enough to have witnessed Arizona's courtroom tactics and she sure as hell didn't want to be on the receiving end of the woman's temper. Anymore so than she'd been thus far today. She was already going to bruise, Meredith absently rubbed at her collarbone where Arizona had used her full strength to pin her to the wall. She cleared her throat, looking up at Callie for some emotional support. The soft heart of the two didn't blame her, she had sympathy for her situation, their situation.

"So I took on an unfaithful spouse case that wasn't so cut and dry." Meredith began when Arizona interrupted her with a scoff.

"When are they ever?" She dared crack a very small smile.

"Exactly." Meredith relaxed. "The woman needed proof her husband was cheating and with proof she could get out of the _family business, _the cartel, for good. Her Uncle ran the business and promised her that he'd let her go _if_ her suspicions were proven beyond a reasonable doubt. That's all she wanted for her kids, a chance to give them a normal life where they weren't always having to look over their shoulders. She never wanted the life but you're born into the families you're born into and she didn't have a choice until now. She wasn't strong enough until now." Meredith dared a small glance in Arizona's direction hoping that the woman understood from her own experience with Callie walking away from her family because Arizona had been that strength for her to do so. She didn't know what was going on with Callie and Arizona, the last thing she had heard before her departure was what she'd witnessed thus far in their messy divorce and she couldn't help but feel guilty for adding more strain to that for them. She couldn't change things, she couldn't go back and never have asked Callie for money but she could remind them, remind Arizona of some of the things that made the two women so strong, together.

Arizona watched Meredith with as much concentration as her frazzled mind allotted to her. She kept glancing sideways at her wife trying to make sure she didn't disappear again, that this wasn't all a big nightmare and she'd awake still on the plane, without her wife by her side. But she was listening to Grey and she understood what it takes to walk away from everything you've ever known for a love so powerful, so strong, so honest … because you had that love you could do anything. This woman's love for her children mirrored to that of the one they shared, the one that got them through this far. Arizona understood and she understood that Meredith was _trying _to make things right where she fouled them up so badly.

"So I followed him one night thinking he was meeting up with his mistress as according to the schedule his wife had given me except I was wrong, she was wrong. _Really wrong._ I watched him torture and kill someone over an arms deal gone bad. He … he was begging for his life and they … oh God, it was awful." Meredith choked back a sob at the memory of watching them cut off each of his fingers before finally giving into the man's pleas to die. Then taking his life in the most gruesome way.

"It's okay Meredith, you're safe. They can't hurt you." Callie's soft voice broke through her nightmare giving her a small sense of security for the first time in too long. Through it all, Callie had remained supportive, a real friend even at the risk of her marriage and wife. A guilt Meredith would forever carry with her.

Nodding, Meredith collected her thoughts back to the present and began again. "I thought I'd slipped in and out unseen but they had surveillance; they caught me on tape. The asshole tracked me down through his wife. He … he beat it out of her. He put her in the hospital and that's when I knew I had to get out and fast. Bailey was livid, she was going to kill me herself."

Arizona chuckled, "Sounds like Miranda although I'm surprised she didn't do it after that courthouse threat."

"Yeah well, that ended up working in our favor. That's right before we called Callie. I was going to just disappear but we didn't want them being able to track me down through my own bank accounts and credit cards so we asked your wife for money, a short term loan. Bailey was going to pay her back as soon as things settled down but once the US Attorney got involved, it was to late to give it back. I … I disappeared without a trace, assumed dead. When the cartel caught on to Callie's involvement, the Witness Protection Program tried to get her to join me but she wouldn't leave you. Even in the midst of your very ugly, very messy divorce, she wouldn't just leave. So as the cartel closed in on her to get to me, the Marshals faked my death complete with an unidentifiable Jane Doe body."

"That's when Callie disappeared." Everything was slowly falling into place. But why did you leave?" Arizona looked over at her wife, her voice dropping to a pained whisper. "Without me." But before she could answer, Meredith continued again.

"I think they were trying to scare Callie into protection. She could bring down the entire operation if the cartel got to her. And it worked, Callie left because she thought they'd really found me. The Marshals wouldn't tell her if that was really my body, if I was even alive anymore. They let her think it was all up to her now. She didn't want to leave you. She's done nothing but cry since she got here but we were promised once they concluded their investigation and brought everyone to justice that we could go home. It's all she wanted. But she also understood that Bailey was safe in jail especially with the discovery of a real body assumed to be me, you were safe with her gone with everybody thinking she just took off unable to deal with the divorce any longer, and my husband was safe thinking I was dead without any idea that I really wasn't. It wasn't supposed to be like this, I just wanted to help her. The Justice Department has an informant on the inside, it's how they knew Callie was in danger but it was _me_ that witnessed the murder, not them so they couldn't testify and give us all back our lives. Callie never meant to hurt you, she …Callie was only trying to help me. Bailey was against it but she also knew how desperate I was. Your wife loves you Arizona. It wasn't about deception, she kept stressing that if she helped us that we would leave you out of this mess. She knew you were our next choice if she couldn't help. Callie only lied ..."

"Stop. Stop. Just stop." Arizona stood up pulling her hand out of her wife's tight grip. She needed to pace. Sitting there any longer was not an option; her mind was racing full of this new knowledge.

"What were you two thinking, Calliope? I'm so … I don't even know." She couldn't figure out exactly how she was supposed to feel here. She was so angry at Calliope for getting involved but so proud of her as well. Her wife didn't think twice about helping out a friend but Arizona just felt betrayed because she was left out of the loop. Callie didn't think about how it would affect her, affect them. She couldn't help but be bitter that this whole _thing_ only further put a wedge between them. And put them all in danger. Danger she had proof of with Stark's untimely death even if she was still slightly skeptical of it all because they, all of them, were just nobodies. Stark could have very well uncovered too much into the cartel's business and gotten himself killed; easy reasoning there because Arizona needed to rationalize everything. Compartmentalize everything. She needed to make this less than it was because if it was real, if everything was real … she shook her head ridding her mind of those thoughts and bringing them back to Meredith Grey. Arizona was never a big fan of the woman but truth be told, she wasn't really a fan of many people. She herself was hard to get along with but she also held people to _really _high standards so it was often mutual dislike. But how could she really hate a woman who put her whole world at risk to help a woman and her kids? She was pacing, trying to comprehend everything, sort it into her neat brain, dissect each and every moment, read between the lines.

As if on cue anger boiled up and over, Arizona whipped around, turning on her wife. "I'm guilty for my contribution to our communication problems but you … yours could have gotten you killed. Me. US!"

"I know, okay? Does it even matter to you at all that I was trying to protect you?" This wasn't all on her and she wasn't going to once again take Arizona's shit without being heard. She was going to be heard for once.

"Yes!" Arizona yelled. "No. No it doesn't because … because you never let _me_ protect you. You are always doing things on your own without me, my input, Calliope. I'm never a deciding factor for you, am I? I … I can't do this, Calliope. I can't. You lied to me. _Really_ lied to me. Maybe it wasn't manipulative or intentionally deceptive but I'm your wife and people are dead and what, we're all just going to move, get new names, new identities and leave everything behind? My … my parents behind? My career? You've ruined it all because you didn't think to include me. Why didn't you just include me? Things would be different if you had only thought about _us_. I don't want any part in this. I can't. I just can't, Calliope. You, you're on your own. It's obviously what you wanted so it's what you've got, are you happy now?" Arizona watched horror and shock cross her wife's face and was acutely aware that maybe she was overreacting, was being too harsh however at the same time she just wasn't ready to calm down, she was still a raging mess of emotions. Maybe she was being abrupt, maybe they needed more time to talk _alone_, more time to clear the air but the look of devastation on her wife's face literally brought her to her knees. She felt real physical pain from the look of pure misery from her wife. And then shame filled her compounding the physical pain almost to the point she couldn't breathe as she watched Callie jumped up, tears in her eyes as she ran away. There was shattered glass on the floor all around her, shards stabbing violently into her knees. But Callie wasn't running _away _like she had thought, she was running toward her. What was going on?

One second her wife was sitting confoundedly on the couch and the very next Arizona tried to crawl, to stand up before collapsing onto her back from the pain. She felt pinned to the floor with her wife kneeling next to her, leaning over her body, fresh tears streaming down her face, blood all over her hands. "Calliope, you … you … you cut yourself on glass, you're hands are bleeding." _What the hell was going on?_

Callie's mouth was moving, silent screams spilling from her lips and Arizona's head was pounding. It felt like a freight train was running its course through her brain.

"Ow." She tried to move, to sit up and apologize to her wife for making her cry but damn she was really hurting.

Everybody was standing there. Panicking. Screaming. Running all around her. Did she unknowingly trip and fall into the glass coffee table during her rant and tantrum? Painfully craning her neck, she looked back toward where she was standing and saw that the front bay window of the safe house was gone, blown out. She watched as Meredith pulled her wife from her rooted spot, Callie still silently screaming and fighting against the arms wrapped around her waist while with medical bags in hand, both Marshals surrounded her on the floor. She couldn't hear what they were saying; why was everyone whispering? With what strength she had left, Arizona reached out and touched the throbbing pain, her hand immediately saturated in blood. Her own blood.

"Oh shit." Arizona's mind caught up to her body as she finally comprehended that her fingers disappeared into a hole where the pain was almost blinding. A bleeding, gaping, gun shot. Her last thoughts before everything went black were of fear as she realized just how much trouble they all were in.

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><p><strong>Disclaimer:<strong> I don't own any of the characters from Grey's Anatomy.


	13. Chapter 14

Due to the vengeful nature of jealous people, the only way to continue reading this story will be on donteatblue dot dreamwidth dot org starting on 6/22/13. Reviewing will be blocked to stop the very sick, mentally ill individuals that need to be committed from further attacks. Contrary to popular belief, I don't write for reviews or praise; I appreciate them, but they are unnecessary. Thank you. Blue


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